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Tunnel roof removal
A vital part of the Solid Waste Storage Silo decommissioning project at Sellafield was completed four weeks early and with no lost-time accidents for over six years when the team successfully removed the building's tunnel roof.
The tunnel was used to transfer waste to storage compartments within the pile fuel cladding silo until tipping operations ceased in 1965.
Completed by British Nuclear Group and tier 2 suppliers Shepleys, AMEC and Cumbria Diamond Drilling, the removal of the tunnel roof is the first step in demolishing the tunnel as a whole.
The success was built on months of preparation including removing, relocating and recommissioning a large amount of control equipment and protecting the silo roof and tunnel walls with layers of decking and crossbracing.
Holes were drilled into the thick concrete roof slab which is thirty five metres long, three metres wide and three hundred millimetres thick and sits over twenty metres from the ground.
Hydraulic ‘crunching’ equipment was then used to break up the concrete into manageable chunks weighing approximately twenty five kilograms. Over one hundred tonnes of rubble filling over 3,500 bags of concrete was removed by hand, safely and without incident. The bags were monitored and transported to the low-level waste repository at Drigg for final disposal.
Commenting on the project, Ian Marr, head of legacy ponds and silos remediation said: ‘This is an excellent example of British Nuclear Group’s ability to involve its workforce and the supply chain workforce to continuously seek more efficient ways to decommission facilities at Sellafield. This is the latest in a long line of such examples on this project.’
Project sponsor Dave Skilbeck, added: ‘Everyone has really pulled together to deliver this project safely. The fact that we have delivered the project early despite the extreme weather conditions the site experienced in January is a testament to how hard the team has worked.’
