Press Release. Ansaldo Nucleare and Westinghouse Electric Company today announced a milestone achievement in their work on the Generation IV lead-cooled fast reactor with completion of the first testing campaign at the Passive Heat Removal Facility recently built at the Ansaldo Nuclear plant in Wolverhampton (UK).

The companies performed the work under a contract within Phase 2 of the Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) program partially funded by the U.K. Government's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which was awarded to Westinghouse with Ansaldo Nucleare as the main

As part of this contract, Ansaldo Nucleare led the design, purchase, installation and commissioning of two state-of-the-art experimental facilities to support Westinghouse's lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) technology, the Versatile Loop Facility (VLF) and the Passive Heat Removal Facility (PHRF).

These test facilities are a key asset for collecting experimental data supporting accelerated development of LFR technology.
“With this milestone we have added another important element to the future of Generation IV reactors,” said Riccardo Casale, Chief Executive Officer of Ansaldo Nucleare. “Together with the UK subsidiary Ansaldo Nuclear Ltd, Ansaldo Nucleare remains at the forefront of Westinghouse Lead Fast Reactor development: a fruitful collaboration we can only be proud of.”
“Moving into the testing phase utilizing these large-scale test facilities clearly demonstrates the maturity of the reactor development project that Westinghouse and Ansaldo Nucleare are advancing” said Mark Urso, interim Chief Technology Officer of Westinghouse “Our project goes beyond design and modeling activities, and includes hands-on activities contributing to enhancing our practical knowledge of LFR technology”.

This achievement is part of the wider initiative launched by the cooperation agreement signed last October between Westinghouse and Ansaldo Nucleare for the joint development of Generation IV LFR technology globally, and with near-term emphasis in key European countries such as UK, Romania and Belgium.