The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Recycling helps pay for some decommissioning at Capenhurst

21 April 2008

 

Recycling is top of the agenda at Capenhurst and has been so successful it enabled some decommissioning work to become self-financing.

The total value of recycling and selling 150 tonnes of redundant copper cabling from storage buildings was a staggering £250,000 – five times the cost of removing it.

NDA Site Programme Manager, Dave Rushton said:
“There are many projects at the site where the SLC are carrying out work that has becoming self-financing thanks to recycling. This is recognised by many people visiting the site as a very good proactive approach to decommissioning.”

The site decided to invoke the principles of the waste hierarchy by reducing the levels of waste for disposal. They cleaned the copper cabling to get rid of any surface contamination and this meant it was suitable for sale on the metals market as scrap. The alternative would have been to package it and send it to the Low Level Waste Repository near Drigg in West Cumbria for disposal.

The cabling was originally used to channel power to the uranium enrichment plant which operated on the site from 1952 to 1982 and carried enough electricity to power a city the size of Leeds.

When removed, the total amount of cabling measured more than 15 kilometres.

In addition to recycling the copper, the site’s clean-up team has recycled hundreds of tonnes of metal including aluminium, steel and rubble.

Future projects include recycling the steel that supported the copper power cables and steel piping that was used to carry cooling water in the former enrichment plant.

Dave Rushton said:
“A section of the old diffusion plant which is the size of four football pitches is also being demolished and it is expected that enough scrap metal will be recovered for recycling to raise another £250,000.

The NDA’s Capenhurst site is scheduled to be the first to complete its clean-up programme when work finishes in 2009. After this time the site will continue as a safe and secure storage site for uranic materials associated with the nuclear fuel cycle.

Meanwhile the site has delivered more than 1.5 million man hours – equivalent to more than four years – without any accidents resulting in an employee having to take more than three days off.

The site’s Safety First campaign is a unique approach to health and safety which makes staff on the shop floor largely responsible for keeping hazards around the site under control. The site was awarded its fifth consecutive safety award and second successive Gold Award by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents last year.

Dave Rushton said:
“The record is remarkable when you consider that the site is undertaking what is probably the biggest demolition project in the north-west of England. To date a total of 72,000 square metres of buildings have been removed and the site is entering the final stages of site clearance.”