Aqueous Waste Treatment Plant at Aldermaston
- RWE NUKEM, Ltd, 424 Harwell, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX 110GJ (United Kingdom)
- AWE plc, Aldermaston, Berkshire RG7 4PR (United Kingdom)
For over half a century the Pangbourne Pipeline formed part of AWE's liquid waste management system. Since 1952 the 11.5 mile pipeline carried pre-treated wastewater from the Aldermaston site for safe dispersal in the River Thames. Such discharges were in strict compliance with the exacting conditions demanded by all regulatory authorities, latterly, those of the Environment Agency. In March 2005 AWE plc closed the Pangbourne Pipeline and ceased discharges of treated active aqueous waste to the River Thames via this route. The ability to effectively eliminate active liquid discharges to the environment is thanks to an extensive programme of waste minimization on the Aldermaston site, together with the construction of a new Waste Treatment Plant (WTP). Waste minimization measures have reduced the effluent arisings by over 70% in less than four years. The new WTP has been built using best available technology (evaporation followed by reverse osmosis) to remove trace levels of radioactivity from wastewater to exceptionally stringent standards. Active operation has confirmed early pilot scale trials, with the plant meeting throughput and decontamination performance targets, and final discharges being at or below limits of detection. The performance of the plant allows the treated waste to be discharged safely as normal industrial effluent from the AWE site. Although the project has had a challenging schedule, the project was completed on programme, to budget and with an exemplary safety record (over 280,000 hours in construction with no lost time events) largely due to a pro-active partnering approach between AWE plc and RWE NUKEM and its sub-contractors. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 13023, Tucson, AZ, 85732-3023 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21210747
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-09-WM-06503; TRN: US09V1175081209
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste Management 2006 Symposium - WM'06 - Global Accomplishments in Environmental and Radioactive Waste Management: Education and Opportunity for the Next Generation of Waste Management Professionals, Tucson, AZ (United States), 26 Feb - 2 Mar 2006; Other Information: Country of input: France; refs
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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