The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

 

Six specialist firms have signed up to support the Magnox Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) programme.

Framework contracts worth more than £350 million have been awarded to retrieve waste from vaults at eight sites, process it and fill Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service (GNS) Yellow Boxes for interim storage and potentially final disposal.

Babcock International, Nuvia, EnergySolutions, NSG Environmental, Spencer Atkins and TSIF ILW are the companies selected following a competition process. Steve Templar, ILW Programme Director, said: "We've searched the market for existing solutions to reduce expensive development costs and deliver increased value."

The contracts were finalised as the first ILW was retrieved from the Berkeley vaults since the start of decommissioning, meeting a target set by the NDA. Fuel Element Debris (FED) was retrieved from vault two using a remotely controlled manipulator. Each grab load of FED was loaded into a box liner that was suspended in the vaults and filled in five stages. After each stage, the liner and contents were withdrawn for radiological assessment to confirm dose rate limits were as expected. Once full, the liner was lowered into the GNS container and the lid bolted in position.

Chris Barnes, Project Manager, said:

"This is a fantastic achievement for Magnox. It was a challenging target that was achieved through the application of simple techniques combined with great teamwork."

The Berkeley vaults and chute silo contain approximately 1,515 cubic metres of ILW generated from the operational years of the power station and laboratories. The majority of the waste is removed from the Magnox fuel casing prior to its shipment to Sellafield for reprocessing.

However, given the nature of the research work undertaken within the laboratories, there are other waste streams unique to Berkeley, which will eventually need to be segregated and stored. The chute silo also contains Miscellaneous Active Components (MAC) such as the charge chutes and control rods removed from both reactors.

The results of the recent project will inform future plans for bulk retrieval at Berkeley and elsewhere in Magnox.

Meanwhile at Bradwell, three burst detection probes were packaged into a GNS Yellow Box, as work continues to demonstrate the viability of the containers with a range of different waste types.