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(Sharecast News) - Infrastructure services, construction and property group Kier announced on Monday that it is part of a consortium appointed as the construction partner for the government-backed Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) landmark fusion programme.
The ILIOS consortium, led jointly by Kier and Nuvia with support from AECOM, AL_A and Turner & Townsend, has been appointed by UK Fusion Energy (formerly known as UK Industrial Fusion Solutions) to support the first threeyear, 200m tranche of the programme to build a prototype fusion energy plant at West Burton in Nottinghamshire.
The consortium will design and construct all buildings, infrastructure and facilities across the STEP site, which is the UK's flagship fusion energy initiative sponsored by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
The project, which will support up to 8,000 onsite jobs at its peak, forms part of a wider programme with future opportunities of up to 10bn, Kier said.
The government announced on Monday that it was making a record investment in fusion energy of 2.5bn over five years, including 1.3bn to the STEP programme.
"STEP is exactly the type of longterm, complex national infrastructure programme our teams are wellplaced to deliver, and it adds further highquality opportunity in a sector where we see clear growth as fusion moves towards commercial viability," said Kier's chief executive Stuart Togwell.
"We're proud to be appointed as construction partner as part of the ILIOS consortium and to support the UK's clean energy transition ambitions through this worldfirst project."
Kier shares were up 0.5% at 215p by 1556 GMT.
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