Expansion of Urenco’s SP4 nuclear facility

The project

Urenco expanded an existing industrial building at its Almelo site for the SP4 enrichment facility. The expansion supports the need for additional uranium enrichment capacity, an important part of the nuclear fuel supply chain.

For this nuclear facility expansion, Iv provided basic engineering, detailed architectural and building engineering, and BIM coordination. This scope enabled Iv to translate the client’s functional and technical requirements into an integrated and constructible design.

The challenge

The project required Iv to integrate the new facilities into the existing industrial site. In a brownfield environment, the design must accommodate existing buildings, installations and infrastructure while carefully managing the interfaces between new and existing assets. The nuclear nature of the site also imposed stringent requirements on information confidentiality and the utmost precision in design details.

Through BIM coordination, Iv brought the building design and relevant technical interfaces together within a coordinated design environment. This allowed design decisions to be assessed in context and potential conflicts to be identified at an early stage. The combination of basic engineering and the preparation of tender specifications enabled the client to invite contractors to submit fixed-price bids, including detailed engineering.

This approach reflects Iv’s broader way of working on industrial projects: Iv can develop designs from concept and tender specifications through to the final design, with a focus on safe, efficient and cost-effective production processes and the integration of new facilities into existing production environments.

The impact

Iv’s engineering provided a controlled and technically substantiated basis for expanding the industrial building. The integrated design approach and BIM coordination gave the project parties a coherent foundation for the subsequent delivery of the project.

The expansion supports Urenco’s role in the nuclear fuel supply chain and therefore indirectly contributes to the availability of nuclear power as a continuous, low-carbon source of electricity.