18 12월 2017

EDF Energy and Cavendish Nuclear sign five-year graphite contract for AGR fleet

EDF Energy and Cavendish Nuclear have signed a five-year contract worth £7.5 million to support the continued operation of the company’s fleet of Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactors.
The agreement covers the provision of specialists and equipment to stations across the UK to carry out inspections of the graphite blocks in the reactor cores.

Previously, the service was delivered on an outage-by-outage basis under contracts with individual stations, which deterred long-term investment in skills, planning and equipment.

The new contract will include 12-month equipment and resource plans for the fleet, leading to optimisation of resource and reduction in re-work due to short timescale planning. It will also deliver reduced overhead to cover planned work and emergent repairs, compared to managing multiple small complex contracts across the fleet.

Sue Walker, who manages EDF Energy’s graphite team said: “Establishing this long term contract has secured a more efficient, sustainable, flexible and resilient service for graphite inspections across the AGR fleet. Long term partnerships like this are an essential part of ensuring that EDF Energy’s nuclear stations continue to provide secure, affordable low carbon electricity for the UK.”

Paul Smith, director of Nuclear Services at Cavendish Nuclear, said: “I’m delighted we have been able to build on our long-term partnership with EDF Energy to deliver a more efficient service for our customer and secure long-term investment in the skills of our staff.”