The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Contract awarded to handle nuclear waste
Energy: German-based firm to tackle seven-year project
A German-based company has been appointed to tackle the world’s deepest nuclear restoration job after winning a £17.5m contract.
Radioactive waste generated during the operation of Dounreay in Caithness was dumped in two underground facilities.
One was the infamous shaft– a 200ft deep column that formed part of the site construction in the 1950s – which was used for disposals until 1977 while the silo, a shallow concrete bunker, was used as a store until 1998.
During the night shift of May 10, 1977 an explosion occurred in the shaft which caused severe damage to the superstructure.
Subsequent investigations concluded there had been a build-up of hydrogen in the upper shaft air space. It was thought sodium present in the waste had reacted, causing a build-up of gas that was ignited by a spark from a water pump.
In 1995, research concluded that the significant ground contamination, which then remained in the vicinity of the shaft, resulted from the methods of waste disposal used in the 1960s. But it found no evidence that radioactivematerial was ejected by the explosion.
Operator Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd said that the safe retrieval of the waste from both the facilities, its repackaging and the clean-up and closure of the underground facilities “is one of the most important tasks in the site cleanup programme.”
It is now implementing its plans to complete the decommissioning of both facilities.
This involves the design, construction, operation of equipment capable of reaching into both facilities to recover the waste and get it into a condition that makes it safe for long-term storage at the site.
Covering design, safety and environment case development, the seven-year contract with M+W forms “an integral part” of the £1.6billion programme to decommission the site.
Spencer Baber, managing director of M+W Group UK said: “We are looking forward to applying our design, decommissioning and complex projects delivery expertise.”
“We are looking forward to applying our expertise”