Decommissioning of the secondary containment of the steam generating heavy water reactor at UKAEA Winfrith
- NUKEM Limited, UKAEA Winfrith Site, Dorchester, Dorset (United Kingdom)
- United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) UKAEA Winfrith Site, Dorchester, Dorset (United Kingdom)
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 ail 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 IS0 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. The paper sets out to demonstrate the considerable progress that has been made with these challenging decommissioning operations at the SGHWR plant and to highlight some of the techniques and processes that have contributed to the overall success of the process. The overall management and control of safety during ail aspects of this challenging contract are major features of the paper, greatly assisted by the adoption from the outset of a non-adversarial team working approach between client and contractor. This has greatly assisted in developing safe and cost-effective solutions to a number of problems that have arisen during the programme, demonstrating the worth of adopting this co-operative approach for mutual benefit. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9 - 332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21294635
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-09-WM-07065; TRN: US10V0041040825
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM'07: 2007 Waste Management Symposium - Global Accomplishments in Environmental and Radioactive Waste Management: Education and Opportunity for the Next Generation of Waste Management Professionals, Tucson, AZ (United States), 25 Feb - 1 Mar 2007; Other Information: Country of input: France; 6 refs
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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