COVER STORY | TAILS MANAGEMENT
outset. However, when you do your project management and your programme management and you divide your integrated schedules and then you overlay when the projects are going to be actually executed, you have a demand curve and that demand curve is broken down by various disciplines,’ he explains, adding: “What we’ve done is gone to market with a reasonable and responsible demand curve and we haven’t had as many problems as perhaps some others for two reasons. One, because we knew what we needed and when in terms of people and disciplines and numbers and where to deploy them. And then, secondly, the narrative around what we do is rather interesting to a lot of people in the market.” Stephens expands on this theme: “For one thing, we
have a outlook of a programme that’s over 10 years. It touches on new technology, existing technology, and also looks at next gen fuels. The scope of what we’re doing is so vast and so wide that any engineer would get rather excited to be involved in numerous programmes like that. The experienced engineers get to touch on many different programmes and new technologies. For younger engineers we offer is working in different regions because we’re a global organisation. But the true one thing is that what you design on paper you can actually go and touch because, as you design it, we’re actually building the facility behind you. Not many engineers get the chance to do that, especially in the early parts of their career, so our offering is very unique compared to other companies in the market.” He also points to a comprehensive knowledge transfer
programme that supports the business: “We looked at retirees. Although we’ve got an ageing workforce, we’d already taken that into account before the capacity programme came into existence. So again, we haven’t seen the dips of retirement as other companies may have. We’re constantly regenerating and bringing people in of younger years. Although we’ve got this big opportunity in front of us, recruitment is something that we’ve always done. We’re just now doing that at a greater frequency and a bigger number. Shifting gears is not that difficult for Urenco. We’re an agile business that knows when we’ve got challenges and opportunities ahead of us that are achievable. We have a lot of knowledge and we have a good knowledge transfer programme for when those people do leave us and they pass on their legacy to other people in the organisation,” he says.
Next steps The FEED stage for the TMF expansion is expected to take approximately 18 months to complete while the facility is scheduled to be completed in about seven years. Bechtel were chosen following a robust procurement process. “Bechtel have the capacity, they have the capability, they have a global reach, they come with pedigree and we want to be with a partner that can work with us. Bechtel have demonstrated their abilities to compliment us as an organisation so they’re very much part of our partnering community,” says Stephens. In terms of the next steps, although the agreement for the FEED has only just been signed, the Bechtel team are already mobilising. “We know who the key people are and have been working with them for quite some months,” notes Stephens. For any kind of capacity investment to be sustainable the industry needs stable policy frameworks as well as new customers and new demand. “The reason why [the capacity programme] has already started is because we have got those in certain countries. The USA is where most of our customers are and we have some new contracts there so the expansion is underwritten. We have new customers in Europe as well. Again, we have been underwritten by new customer contracts,” comments Stephens. Indeed, earlier this year Urenco signed a new
agreement for enrichment services to supply one of the two units at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant in Bulgaria. Kozloduy is state owned and the deal supports Bulgaria’s objectives to diversify their nuclear fuel supply chain. Urenco joins Cameco, Uranium Asset Management (UAM) and Westinghouse with the agreement seeing Urenco’s enrichment facilities in Europe receive natural uranium (UF6
) from Cameco and supply enriched
uranium for fabrication into nuclear fuel rods by Westinghouse. The original TMF at Capenhurst was a billion-dollar
investment and the expansion will bring a further multi- million investment as well. As Stephens concludes: “This is us being serious about our capacity programmes, expanding the amount of SWU we do in terms of energy security and we’ve had to back that with the investment in something which deals with our tails as a result of that enrichment.” ■
Right: Responsible nuclear stewardship is a key part of Urenco’s business philosophy Source: Urenco
16 | November 2023 |
www.neimagazine.com
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