VIRTUAL ENGINEERING CENTRE AWARDED MAJOR NUCLEAR DIGITAL CONTRACT

25th November 2019

The Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC) in Liverpool City Region will soon start work on the Government’s Digital Reactor Design nuclear research programme.

Led by Wood and funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, The £3.6m project will bring together experts from academia and industry to highlight cost savings opportunities from design, construction, operation and decommissioning of nuclear reactors.

Liverpool's Virtual Engineering Centre

Liverpool City Region’s Virtual Engineering Centre

Established in 2010, VEC is the UK’s leading centre of Virtual Engineering technology integration for industrial and commercial applications and part of University of Liverpool’s Institute for Digital Engineering and Autonomous Systems.

VEC will work to develop the digital framework to support future nuclear reactor builds, using new tools and disruptive technologies in a digital framework, utilising real-life case studies and applications to demonstrate improved efficiency.

Konstantin Vikhorev, Simulation Team Leader at VEC, said:

“Being awarded this project shows strong recognition to our team’s capability in developing digital frameworks to support collaboration, design and improve operation.

“When delivering complex national projects such as this, systems integration is key. The framework provides an opportunity for project partners to combine their capabilities, it will ultimately offer an infrastructure for collaboration for organisations across the whole sector.”

Principal Investigator at the University of Liverpool, Professor Eann Patterson, added:

“This project has already seen huge success in reviewing and mapping existing cross-discipline design and modelling capabilities, proving the concept for a new and better way of designing nuclear power reactors.

“We’re looking forward to working together with our partners in this next phase to further develop the digital framework across the design and operational lifecycle of nuclear plant to support collaboration in this complex industrial sector and achieve the Phase 2 project objectives which include strengthen capabilities across the sector for the future.”

Discover more about VEC HERE.

25th November 2019