RESTRICTED

il Barton

Cer 2877

Се

6uals it present.

From: JK Gordon

NED

Date 24 July 1986 се : Dr Wilson

Sir W Harding

Mr Ham

Hong Kong Dept

NUCLEAR POWER STATIONS : LONG TERM ROLE OF CONTRACTOR AFTER COMMISSIONING

1.

Sir W Harding asked me yesterday to look into the practice of nuclear power station construction companies once commissioning of plants ordered by over- seas customers was complete, in view of the possible precedent for Daya Bay.

2.

Our researches have revealed that it is established practice for the contractor to be involved once commissioning is complete. This generally takes two forms:

3.

(a)

a percentage of the commissioning team (often about half of them) stay on for 6-12 months after handover. This is for obvious practical reasons. The contractor knows the type of reactor he constructs best and is best placed to give any sort of advice in the opening months of a plant's working life.

(b)

Specialists employed by the contractors return as required on an ad-hoc basis to do specific pieces of work. Such a link can continue for many years. For example British engineers still return to the Italian, Japanese and Magnox reactors constructed in the early 60s.

for

In other words there is plenty of precedent a continuing long term relationship. But we have not yet turned up evidence of continuous involvement on the site for more than 12 months. We are pursuing this with US and German contacts. In particular, there may well be a precedent in the German/Brazilian nuclear relationship. In any case,

RESTRICTED

/a

Share This Page