SFIL to service nuclear power plants

Sheffield Forgemasters International (SFIL) has secured new contracts to service South Korea’s latest generation of nuclear power plants.

SFIL has committed to an order valued at more than $1m (£650,000) with Westinghouse Newington, the specialist pump division of Westinghouse Electric Company (WEC), for components to support primary reactor pumps in South Korea’s Shin Kori 3 and 4 power stations.

SFIL will supply eight support skirt castings, which form an integral part of the structure at the heart of the reactor. The order builds on the previous supply of similar components to the Shin Kori 1 and 2 reactors at the Kori plant, located close to Busan, South Korea’s largest seaport.

Shaun Gray, senior sales manager at SFIL’s Engineering division, said: ‘We will deliver eight fully assembled support skirts, including the final machining, subassembly and supply of bushes and pins, all of which meet American Society of Mechanical Engineers international standards for civil nuclear construction.

‘South Korea has a very dynamic civil nuclear power agenda, with nuclear anticipated to supply 60 per cent of the country’s electricity needs within 25 years,’ he added.

The Shin Kori 3 and 4 power plants, which form the latest stage of this investment programme, are scheduled to go into operation in 2013 and 2014 respectively, with a net capacity of 1,350MWe each.

Delivery of the Forgemasters castings is scheduled for May 2010.