Engineering group Amec Foster Wheeler, which has significant operations across Cheshire, has signed a wide-ranging agreement with a Chinese business covering potential collaboration in the nuclear industry.
Amec Foster Wheeler and China Nuclear Engineering & Construction (Group) Corporation (CNEC) have signed a memorandum of understanding in Beijing as part of a nuclear industry trade mission organised by UK Trade & Investment and the China-Britain Business Council.
It is the first time that CNEC has agreed to collaborate with a global engineering consultancy on the deployment of high-temperature reactors in the UK and internationally.
Tom Jones, vice president of Amec Foster Wheeler's Clean Energy business, said: "High-temperature reactors have great potential to provide safe, clean and sustainable energy for the future. We hope that our collaboration with CNEC will help the UK and China to realise the potential benefits of this tremendously important technology."
Zu Bin, vice president of China Nuclear Engineering & Construction (Group) Corporation, said: "The high-temperature gas cooled reactor is inherently safe and can generate electricity efficiently and competitively for power generation, heat supply and desalination."
Amec Foster Wheeler and CNEC have committed to work together to develop opportunities in nuclear power development, construction, operation and decommissioning projects globally.
They will also identify specialist knowledge that each can contribute towards reactor outage management, operation, ageing management, lifetime extension and upgrading of existing units. In addition, the scope of the agreement covers training, waste management and decommissioning.
It is expected that CNEC will make use of Amec Foster Wheeler's new high-temperature facility in the UK, which will carry out research and testing on materials capable of withstanding temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees centigrade.
Amec Foster Wheeler's Clean Energy Europe business employs 1,200 workers in Knutsford and Warrington in Cheshire, as well as 250 at Sellafield and Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria.