The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Biggest demolition project completed

06 October 2008

 

The biggest demolition project on a UK nuclear site has been completed at the NDA’s Capenhurst site in Cheshire. The diffusion plant was the first of its kind in the country and operated from 1952 to support the military and civil nuclear programmes.

It closed in 1982 and decommissioning and clean up began. The plant which was housed in aircraft hanger-like buildings covered an area equivalent to five football pitches.

Since 1982 the equipment within the building was dismantled and replaced with robotics and cutting machinery to help characterise, process and dispose of the aluminium stage units used in the diffusion process.

 

This work was carried out both by hand and using plasma cutting torches mounted on robots. The aluminium was recycled and sold on the metals market.

Before demolition of the buildings could take place all of the surfaces had to be monitored. This task took four people a year to complete. Services like electricity and water had to be mapped and either disconnected or diverted.

Before the demolition work could start a colony of bats had to be safely relocated.

Three 360 degree excavators were drafted in to dismantle the building. Parts of the building were joined to operational facilities that are sensitive to vibration so much of the work had to be done by hand with staff working at height to complete the task.

Demolition work took a total of three months and the removal of the buildings dramatically changed the local skyline.

The completion of the project means a total of 137,000 square feet of buildings have been demolished at Capenhurst and the site is on target to have completed all of its decommissioning and clean-up work on time next year.

David Rushton, the NDA’s Site Programme Manger said:
“The most important thing is that the site has achieved this incredible task without a single Lost Time Accident. It has been an amazing feat of engineering and planning when you consider the size and scale of the task.”