Nuclear work will push engineers to new limits

Contractors must enter a “new era” to build the next generation of nuclear power stations or face serious penalties, warned consultant John Large of Large and Associates. He told CJ that late-running projects could cost contractors £500,000 a day.

Large was last week commissioned by Greenpeace to investigate quality control in Finland’s Olkiluoto power station after problems were found in the concrete.

TVO, the owner of the power plant, ceased concrete production at the site in early February after detecting what it called “quality non-conformities” in the concrete: specifically the water content was too high in some batches.

The concrete supplier, Lemminkainen, has denied that there were any quality issues, stating that the higher quality cement being used meant there were no problems with the water content.

Nevertheless, TVO has taken the “required measures for ensuring quality” and concrete production recommenced last month.

Large said the project’s designers may have lacked knowledge of materials. “Civil engineering is generally outside the regulator’s remit. One of the problems is the nuclear industry becomes the lead technology and concrete becomes the secondary technology.

“It may be that the power station requires a very thick slab of concrete that engineers aren’t used to working with. It will push civil engineering into a new era.”

Large said the problems encountered with the building of Olkiluoto power station will affect projected work in the UK.

“If Tony Blair goes ahead with his plan, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate will clearly start looking at the Finnish case and this will mean the technical regulations will be tightened up considerably,” he explained.

Large believes the project will have implications for Amec, which became a major UK player in the nuclear industry when it acquired nuclear expert NNC last year.

“I would have thought that companies like Amec NNC will be watching this very carefully, because it has tremendous tendering implications,” Large said.

“If it goes wrong, the contractor will be responsible for the construction and the loss of energy at the other end.”

The loss of energy could cost £500,000 a day, Large said.

However, Terry Gilbert, business development director of Amec Nuclear Projects, told CJ the construction industry already produces the quality of materials needed for nuclear projects.

He said: “The quality of the concrete to produce a nuclear plant is being made in the UK as we speak. Sellafield Thorpe used 100,000m3 of concrete, which was all high-quality grade. We had laboratories on site and quality control was second to none.”