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Safety assured

A company that checks that ageing nuclear plant is still up to the job hopes to profit too from newbuild in the sector. Ben Sampson reports

The Risley site in Warrington is steeped in engineering history. The former Second World War ordnance and munitions factory is where the nuclear power industry began. Many of the firms here trace their heritage back to the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the birth of reactor technology in the UK. Some are even still using that heritage to keep the country’s ageing fleet of nuclear reactors online, almost 50 years on.

Physical testing: Lab work in the structural integrity unit verifies the results of computer modelling, to ensure that components are fit for purpose

But time isn’t standing still at Risley, which is now called the Birchwood Business Park. Mingled with the 1960s buildings are shiny new glass boxes of offices. There are several recent additions to the site – a new hotel, crèche and gym. Most pleasingly for the local “greybeards”, there are more young faces around than there have been for years.

Risley is riding the wave of the nuclear renaissance, and one of the firms benefiting is a little-known part of a big group that runs prisons and airports. Serco acquired its Risley-based assurance business from AEA Technology in 2001. In the past four years, the firm’s sales have grown from £40 million to £100 million, and staff numbers have doubled.

So what do they do? In two words, safety cases. Safety cases that enable the UK’s nuclear power stations to continue operating well past their original intended life. Safety cases that keep nuclear submarines submerged, and safety cases that keep commercial passenger aircraft in the sky.

At the core of Serco’s assurance business and underpinning these safety cases is the structural integrity department, which since 2005 has grown from 55 people to 120 out of a total of 500 engineers and scientists across the business. Split into two sections, around half of the engineers develop models and run simulations on computers, while the other half prove safety cases with physical experiments in the laboratory.

The 4,000m2 laboratory is equipped with complex research equipment and testing kit. It has the air of a university department. David Wright, head of the materials and components research laboratory, is keen to stress the real-life applications of the team’s work.

“We are a research organisation plugged into real-life problems, enabling customers to get more out of their plant,” he says. “Any material property you can think of, I can recreate in my lab.”

Structural integrity, he says, is “making sure things are fit for purpose”– in layman’s terms, studying rust and cracks. The lab tests materials and components for things like fatigue, corrosion and high-temperature creep.

Wright is passionate about his laboratory, which has received investment of almost £9 million in the past four years. There is a large bespoke rig, capable of replicating loads on three axes at up to 700 tonnes, used to test aircraft components. There is a phased array ultrasonic testing machine, and electron microscopes.

Overwhelmingly, most of the equipment is used to recreate the conditions found in nuclear power stations. Since irradiated metals cannot be tested, engineers recreate the temperatures and pressures found inside power stations.

“Our work keeps the reactors on the busbars,” says Wright. “But these are just the tools. What matters is taking the results, developing the science and applying it to real plant.”

Chris Theobald, the managing director of the nuclear assurance business, says: “What’s special about this site is that we’ve co-located the analytical and experimental work needed to put together safety cases on one site.
“The work we do here underpins keeping the lights on.”

It’s not all about keeping old reactors online, though. The firm is aiming to support reactor vendors through the Health and Safety Executive’s Generic Design Assessment process for nuclear new build, and is also supporting the HSE in the GDA process itself.

There are interests in the waste and decommissioning sector too. Despite being unsuccessful in its bid to manage the Sellafield site, Serco was part of a consortium that recently won a contract to manage the National Nuclear Laboratory.

As a result, Theobald believes the company still has much to bring to UK decommissioning, and that the export market will also be strong. Countries such as India and China are reported to be planning hundreds of nuclear power stations. Risley is well positioned to provide things like consultation and even training services for inspectors.

Theobald says: “The government’s commitment to new nuclear power stations has revitalised the way people see nuclear power. We’re part of the story about ensuring that it stays that way.”

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