Sheffield Forgemasters at ‘pinnacle of development’ for small nuclear reactors after new accreditation

Ian Nicholls, group technical director, at Sheffield Forgemasters, said, “We undertook the ASME audit in November and have now received confirmation that the audit recommendation has been approved by the committee. The accreditation is a huge development with heightened requirements and protocols embracing all our processes, employees and selected sub-suppliers.”

The qualification comes soon after the company announced a ground-breaking development in the acceleration of welding for large nuclear vessels, using Electron Beam Welding to reduce more than a year’s worth of manual welding to less than 24 hours.

As well as being the sole UK supplier of large, nuclear-grade forgings and castings, Sheffield Forgemasters’ MO and NPT status now makes it one of the only UK companies qualified for fabrication of the main components within a civil nuclear power plant.

Mr Nicholls added: “The ASME accreditation, coupled with our development of Electron Beam Welding for large diameter, nuclear grade vessels, places Sheffield Forgemasters at the pinnacle of development for Small Modular Reactors and presents significant possibilities for the UK’s domestic nuclear new-build programme.”

The ASME code is the most comprehensive series of guidelines for civil nuclear manufacture in the world with an emphasis on doctrines that have parallels with the European Nuclear manufacturing code, RCC-M, and other submarine nuclear standards.