UK industry third in ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ contracts awarded
1 Oct 2010
Head of the Internal Components Division Mario Merola introduced the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Project to the audience at Culham as "an engineering challenge for industry."
UK industry has won well over £100 million (115.5 M€) worth of contracts so far from construction of the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ fusion project in France, but needs to do better if it is to benefit from the next construction phase, worth up to EUR 2 billion (2.3 B€). That is one of the conclusions of a UK Trade & Investment (UKTI)-sponsored event on "Business Opportunities for UK plc for Fusion and ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ" held at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE), Oxfordshire, on 23 September.
ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ will be the world's largest fusion energy experiment when it is completed in 2019. UK companies have fared well during the site preparation phase at Cadarache in the south of France. The next phase will see a large portion of the project's EUR 10 billion (11.5 B€) tokamak and buildings construction budget being spent.
Over 100 companies attended the one-day conference at which representatives from ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ, Europe's procurement agency for ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Fusion for Energy (F4E), UKTI, CCFE engineers and UK companies working on ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Project, reviewed the business opportunities and engineering challenges in the next phase of ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ construction, and described the procurement procedure and tendering process.
Senior Administrator for Contracts Zoran Cikic (left) presented ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ procurement process and current opportunities. Section Leader Bob Shaw (Machine Assembly & Installation Section) also participated in the conference.
"The ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Project faces significant engineering and project management challenges where UK companies can compete effectively—either on their own or as part of a consortium. ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ is providing new business opportunities to companies who are keen to use their expertise in this prestigious program," says Dan Mistry, Fusion and Industry Manager, CCFE.
"Currently UK is third in ranking (behind France and Italy) in contracts awarded but we want to be number one," adds Mistry. "The only way we're going to climb is if more companies take note of these opportunities and respond. F4E has nearly EUR 2 billion to spend in the next three years and we want to alert companies of these opportunities, so if you are interested please pre-qualify and register your details on ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ's, F4E's and our own database and join the list of successful companies—Atkins Global, Tessella, Halcrow, Jacobs, Oxford Technologies and Oxford Instruments to name but a few."
Companies wishing to find out more about ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ and how to register with ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ and F4E should contact Dan Mistry, Fusion and Industry manager, CCFE on 01235 466607 and email: @email. They can also sign up for CCFE's industry database at:
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