The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Project to demolish the UK’s first nuclear fuel plant is almost complete

11 July 2008

 

A fenced off clay pit occupied by workmen, bulldozers, and giant bags of soil is the scene of the culmination of seven years’ decommissioning and clean-up work on the facility known as A59 at Winfrith in Dorset.

The facility was built in the early 1960s for post irradiation examination (PIE) and included high activity cave lines, pressurised suit operations as well as general workshops and operation areas.

The mammoth task of decommissioning the facility started in 2001 and the demolition project to date has seen the safe removal of over 4,000 tonnes of concrete rubble. It has also seen the application of rigorous waste segregation techniques to ensure waste is discharged in the most appropriate way – this explains the hundreds of bags of soil to be seen on the site.

 

This approach to the work meant that two high activity cave lines have been decommissioned and demolished as well as for the removal of 124 storage tubes ranging in length from 2.5 to 6.6 metres. Over 1,400 tonnes of steel has been recycled and over 6,000 tonnes of material has been recycled or disposed of as exempt waste.

The whole project is nearly finished with the remaining storage tubes being removed and the site remediated over the next few months to meet the agreed Winfrith End State.

Karl Shuler, A59 Project Manager, said:

“History will show it was a hugely successful project. It was the first major PIE facility to be decommissioned in the UK. It contained a lot of radioactive material. But we have managed to take it down in a short space of time.”

Karl is a veteran when it comes to major projects like this having moved to Dorset from Colorado almost two years ago. He previously worked on the Rocky Flats technology site where he was responsible for the decommissioning and clean-up of many similar facilities.

“It’s very rare when a project like this is problem free and this one was not without problems. The project was split in two – dealing with the structures above ground and those below. My experience includes sub-surface work and from the moment when you remove your first shovel full of earth you must reconcile the reality with your earlier estimates for the work,” Karl explained.

He said they were now into the last 20% of the project. The amount of anticipated waste had increased in volume due to the amount of soil that was found to be contaminated. Each bag of soil is monitored to check the levels of contamination. Exempt waste material is sent to landfill and the remainder treated as low level waste and transported to the LLWR near Drigg in West Cumbria.

“Through segregation we have avoided having to send 40% of the waste to the Low Level Waste Repository,” said Karl.

40 staff from UKAEA, Nuvia and Buckfield Group have been working on the project.

Karl said: “A59 is just like projects I have worked on in the US. You have to be prepared for the unexpected.”