GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has signed a memoradum of understanding with international construction contracting company Fluor for its ESBWR reactor design bid to Poland electrical utility Polska Grupa Energetyczna (PGE).
Fluor would act as an engineering, procurement and construction contractor in the project. The Polish bid process is scheduled to begin in late September, and to complete in mid-2013.
Fluor has a Polish base of 300 employees at Gliwice through a principally oil and gas subsidiary, formerly Prosynchem, acquired in the mid-1990s.
GE and Fluor worked on the USA's Fermi 2 nuclear power plant, which began commercial operation in 1988.
Fluor's David Boone told Nuclear Engineering International that Fluor would help complete the ESBWR design, and detailed divisional responsibilities between parties.
He said that the two companies were also 'discussing' other prospects in the region, but would not say any more. In August, Hitachi-GE won a Lithuanian government tender to become a strategic investor in supplying an ABWR reactor for Visaginas. GE is also competing to sell an ESBWR at TVO's Olkiluoto 4.
Boone said that the civil construction part of the project is essential, and that Fluor had been talking to civil, mechanical and electrical contractors. He said that the company was aiming to appoint a civil contractor by the end of 2012. He said that the 150 or so contractors that already have a strategic relationship agreement with Fluor from work on other contracts could be in a better position than other companies for the Poland contract.
