Member Article

Leading UK Risk Management Consultancy Wins Contract for Sizewell B

One of the UK’s leading risk management consultancies – Corporate Risk Associates (CRA) - has been awarded a new contract by EDF Energy to perform a technical review of a reliability analysis developed for upgrades to the Process Control and Distributed Computer Systems at Sizewell B.

The move comes as part of a modernisation of the platforms by American based nuclear power company and technology provider to Sizewell B, Westinghouse Electric Company.

The Pennsylvania based company operates the Westinghouse Integrated System for Centralised Operation (WISCO) on which both the Process Control and Distributed Computer Systems for Sizewell B are housed and - as part of the upgrade of these platforms - EDF Energy has appointed CRA to ensure that reliability analyses performed by Westinghouse for the equipment upgrades meet the electricity producer’s robust reliability standards.

The work will include a full review, recommendations and an endorsement of the reliability analysis being carried out by the nuclear technology company.

Speaking about the contract win, Principal Consultant and manager of the support agreement between CRA and EDF Energy, Hugh Stephenson, said: “We are delighted to be working on such an advanced reliability analysis project for EDF Energy, which will be performed under CRA’s growing Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Safety (RAMS) service offering. Securing this contract is a testament to our increasing involvement in state-of-the-art reliability analysis that is performed to support existing and planned nuclear power plants in the UK and overseas.”

Founded in 2000, CRA has a strong pedigree in the nuclear sector having advised on the management of safety, risk and reliability across projects including the Magnox plant at Wylfa, all seven of the UK’s Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGRs) and Hinkley Point C. Formed to initially focus on the nuclear industry, the company quickly experienced growth within other industry sectors demanding the same robust safety, risk and reliability standards.

Now boasting a team of 35 - and with additional staff embedded in client offices in both Paris and Lyon - the consultancy prides itself on managing safety, reliability and risk across the nuclear, rail and defence industries.

The Sizewell B nuclear power plant is located on the Suffolk coast and is the UK’s only Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR). The plant supplies 1198MW of electricity to the national grid and started generating power in 1995.

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