NIA International Event – 8th November, Knutsford
The latest NIA (Nuclear Industry Association) International Group event focussed on working in France, Poland and central Europe. Fantastic guest speakers from businesses across Europe shared their experiences and insight, followed by updates on the developing nuclear programmes in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania.
Almost 100 business representatives signed up to attend from across over 60 companies, with government and industry organisations from 10 countries present.
Presentations on the day covered:
- Working at and setting up businesses in France, from Mott Macdonald (event sponsors) and Stephenson Harwood.
- Vulcain shared the benefits of having a large French nuclear business behind their UK business, creating a shared resource of capability and capacity.
- The new nuclear challenge in Europe, from EDF. How a fleet approach through EDF EPR3 and SMR Technology can support the nuclear renaissance in France and Europe.
Polish Power
The afternoon sessions focussed on new nuclear developments in Poland. Poland is new to nuclear and is being supported in these developments by Bechtel/Westinghouse and Jacobs, as well as Rolls Royce on SMR opportunities. They are looking to build large scale units generating 6-9 GW of power, plus SMRs for bespoke power to high energy usage industries. You can catch the Polish nuclear energy deptartment in Paris at the WNE (World Nuclear Exhibition) later this month in the Polish Pavilion.
Europe – progress from across the nuclear lifecycle
Slovakia came into the spotlight for their nuclear decommissioning and nuclear new build programmes at the Bohunice V1NPP and JAVYS. They are at the planning stage, investigating the building of SMRs to replace coal fired stations.
In Hungary, construction works have just commenced with a large new build at PAKS 11 for two 1200GW units. The Hungarian company, Hepenix, provided an update on the decommissioning programme in Hungary at the PAKS 1 NPP, which is a long-term programme extending to the 2080s.
S.N.Nuclearelectrica and Romatom presented on the nuclear programmes in Romania. They are looking to increase their nuclear generating capacity through the refurbishment of their existing CANDU reactors at Cernavoda and building of new SMR reactors.
The future of nuclear across Europe is innovative and exciting.
We look forward to discussing the opportunities for support and connections across the support chain at WNE later this month.
Get in touch to arrange a meeting with us.