Decommissioning of the secondary containment of the steam generating heavy water reactor at UKAEA-Winfrith
- NUKEM Ltd., Kelburn Court, Daten Park, Birchwood, Warrington, WA3 6TW (United Kingdom)
- United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority - UKAEA (United Kingdom)
Available in abstract form only. Full text of publication follows: The Winfrith SGHWR was a prototype nuclear power plant operated for 23 years by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) until 1990 when it was shut down permanently. The current Stage 1 decommissioning contract is part of a multi-stage strategy. It involves the removal of all the ancillary plant and equipment in the secondary containment and non-containment areas ahead of a series of contracts for the decommissioning of the primary containment, the reactor core and demolition of the building and all remaining facilities. As an outcome of a competitive tending process, the Stage 1 decommissioning contract was awarded to NUKEM with operations commencing in April 2005. The decommissioning processes involved with these plant items will be described with some emphasis of the establishment of multiple work-fronts for the production, recovery, treatment and disposal of mainly tritium-contaminated waste arising from its contact with the direct cycle reactor coolant. The means of size reduction of a variety of large, heavy and complex items of plant made from a range of materials will also be described with some emphasis on the control of fumes during hot cutting operations and establishing effective containments within a larger secondary containment structure. Disposal of these wastes in a timely and cost-effective manner is a major challenge facing the decommissioning team and has required the development of a highly efficient means of packing the resultant materials into mainly one-third height ISO containers for disposal as LLW. Details of the quantities of LLW and exempt wastes handled during this process will be given with a commentary about the difficulty in segregating these two waste streams efficiently. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Three Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5990 (United States); Technological Institute of the Royal Flemish Society of Engineers (TI-K VIV), Het Ingenieurshuis, Desguinlei 214, 2018 Antwerp (Belgium); Belgian Nuclear Society (BNS) - ASBL-VZW, c/o SCK-CEN, Avenue Hermann Debrouxlaan, 40 - B-1160 Brussels (Belgium)
- OSTI ID:
- 21156499
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICEM'07: 11. International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management, Bruges (Belgium), 2-6 Sep 2007; Other Information: Country of input: France; Proceedings may be ordered from ASME Order Department, 22 Law Drive, P.O. Box 2300, Fairfield, NJ 07007-2300 (United States)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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