The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

A new lease of life for Dungeness carbon dioxide tanks

22 May 2008

 

Carbon Dioxide tanks (Co2) formerly used to cool the nuclear reactors at Dungeness power station are now enjoying a new lease of life providing a valuable service to the oil exploration industry.

In their former lives the tanks held liquid Co2 which was used to cool the reactors at the Kent plant. They became redundant when power generation finished in 2006. A project team was set up to look into the best way of disposing of the tanks after the liquid Co2 was removed from them.

 

They decided that rather than cut them up and scrap them; they would look at opportunities for re-use which was the safer greener option.

The site’s engineering team designed the plan to remove the tanks and the work was carried out by the maintenance teams. The staff de-lagged the tanks and with the help of colleagues from Health Physics and Waste they were made ready for collection and transport off the site.

 

The Dungeness site had a service agreement with a company called European Metals Recycling for the disposal of waste metal from the site. The company also acted as an agent for items that might be re-useable and they were offered as such.

 

As it happened a company called Schlumberger was looking for tanks to hold hydrochloric acid for use in the oil exploration. The acid is used to release oil which is trapped in strata and it is pumped down from the tanks through the pipework used to drill for the oil.

The Dungeness tanks were of the right quality and thickness to be adapted for this use and the company paid £10k for the tanks as well as the cost of transporting them and refurbishing them.

The tanks now are sailing the seven seas in search of oil.