A nuclear 'renaissance': Atkins role in ITER

Atkins, as part of the Engage consortium, has signed one of the biggest engineering contracts in Europe with Fusion for Energy (F4E), a £132million contract to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).

ITER is the world's latest experimental nuclear fusion reactor, to be built in Cadarache in the South of France. If successful, the facility will deliver nuclear fusion on a commercial scale offering safe, limitless and environmentally responsible energy.

Martin Grant, managing director of Atkins' energy business, said:

"ITER ranks as one of the most technically challenging projects the world has ever seen and it must be delivered to a time-critical schedule.

We will be involved in all stages of the design and construction, providing civil, structural and mechanical engineering, together with commercial management through our cost consultants, Faithful+Gould."

ITER is one of the world's biggest and most complex engineering projects and is jointly funded by the USA, China, Europe, Russian Federation, India, Japan and Republic of Korea.

Atkins won the contract as part of the Engage consortium, which includes French engineers Assystem and Iosis and Spanish engineer Empresarios Agrupados.