A LANDMARK moment for the United Kingdom's involvement in global nuclear power supply has been recognised after the first UK-made components for China's latest nuclear power plants were delivered after a 10,000-mile journey.

A uniquely designed, cast stainless-steel pump casing made by world-leading Sheffield Forgemasters was shipped from the 200-year-old engineering specialist's site in northern England, heralding the UK's first involvement in the Asian super-power's burgeoning nuclear power programme.

The casing - one of 18 produced for the Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Company on behalf of Westinghouse Electric Company - left Sheffield to undertake a trans-continental sea voyage to dock at China's Dalian port.

All of the 16-tonne reactor coolant pump castings will see service on China's Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power plants at Sanmen in Zhejiang province and Haiyang in Shandong province. They are also set to feature on all future AP1000 plants globally.

Mike Tynan, chief executive office of Westinghouse Electric in the UK, said: "Shipping the first UK manufactured component is a key milestone in our project to build the world's first AP1000 nuclear power plant in China.

"We currently have orders for 10 AP1000 plants and we are also seeing significant interest in the UK where we have now established our dedicated UK team. We have growing interest from around the world and are delighted to be working in partnership with Sheffield Forgemasters, one of the UK's leading manufacturing organisations, as we continue to expand our global nuclear build programme."

Sheffield Forgemasters International Limited (SFIL) worked with EMD, a business unit of Curtiss-Wright Flow Control, in the details of the development of the safety critical castings, and was commissioned by the company to produce the stage-one pump casings because of its expertise in casting manufacture and materials development.

Shaun Gray, senior sales manager at SFIL's engineering division, said: "This is a landmark moment for the UK's involvement in global nuclear power supply and these are the first components manufactured within the UK that will be used in China's nuclear power plants.

"Sheffield Forgemasters has worked closely with Curtiss-Wright and also with Westinghouse to become a fundamental partner in the supply chain for a programme which will see Westinghouse AP1000 power plants installed across the world. What we have achieved with the AP1000 project is a first for SFIL and the cast safety-critical pump casings will be incorporated into the main reactor system," he added.

"The process of manufacturing the reactor coolant pump casings is very refined and the AP1000 castings have taken substantial input from our technical director Ian Nicholls and his design teams to produce what are really quite complex structures in terms of mechanical and metallurgical requirements," said Shaun Gray.

"These pumps are structurally integral to the reactor and have many stresses placed on them aside from those created by pumping pressurised coolant at a rate of 65,000 to 95,000 gallons per minute," he added.

Sheffield Forgemasters is a global leader in supplying total engineering packages to solve industrial needs. It specialises in a broad range of heavy forged and cast steel products as well as supplying ingot and bar. The group can design, establish material requirements, produce material specifications and manufacture products to the highest quality.

SFIL produces some of the largest custom-made engineered products in the world with capacity for castings of up to 350 tonnes and forgings of up to 275 tonnes. It is the world's leading supplier of castings to the offshore sector and has designed and manufactured 46,000 tonnes of components. The company has operated in this market for more than 20 years and its castings are tried and tested in structures around the globe.

Westinghouse Electric Company, a group company of Toshiba Corporation, is a pioneering nuclear power company and is a leading supplier of nuclear plant products and technologies to utilities throughout the world.

China will build four AP1000s, two on the Sanmen site and two on the Haiyang site. Construction on the first of these plants, at Sanmen, began in February 2008.

In the UK, Westinghouse runs the Springfields site in Preston, Lancashire (where 1,500 people are employed), on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.