Hitachi Nuclear Energy Europe (HNE) has given a contract to Wood to help in delivery of the 2,700MW Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant of Horizon Nuclear Power in Wales.

Wylfa Newydd CGI

Image: Illustration of the Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant. Photo: courtesy of Horizon Nuclear Power.

The Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant project is being built in Isle of Anglesey in North Wales with an investment of £16bn. It is expected to begin operations in the mid 2020s, with construction likely to begin in 2020, subject to approvals.

HNE under an early contractor engagement (ECE) contract is supporting deployment of two UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWR) reactors for the nuclear power plant, which will provide enough power to supply some five million UK homes.

Both HNE and Horizon Nuclear Power are subsidiaries of Hitachi.

Wood has been appointed as architect engineering support partner for the Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant project. The company will be responsible for supporting HNE in its architect engineer role on technical specifications, procurement and design integration and also for managing interfaces with Horizon Nuclear Power.

Wood specialist technical solutions CEO Bob MacDonald said: “We are looking forward to working with Hitachi on this project which is so important to the future energy security of the UK.

“Being selected for this work is an indication of the deep and broad technical knowledge of our 2,000 nuclear specialists. Many are internationally recognised experts with wide experience of design integration and delivering optimized solutions.”

Wood said that its appointment is likely to transition into a 10-year framework, extending up to the start of commercial operations, once the Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant passes further key milestones during 2019.

The company, in turn, selected Black & Veatch to help execute its contract. Black & Veatch will handle the provision of technical services to support contracts needed for the engineering, procurement and construction of the new UK nuclear power project.

Black & Veatch business development (Europe) director Peter Hughes said: “This win marks a key milestone in our journey to diversify the client base and markets Black & Veatch serves in the UK. Wylfa Newydd also meets our goal of broadening the career development opportunities we can offer our professionals.

“Throughout 2018 we have been announcing wins in the UK energy market. With Wylfa Newydd, we are ending the year on a high.”

In August, Horizon Nuclear Power gave a project management contract to Bechtel for the Wylfa Newydd nuclear power project.