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British Nuclear Group probe depths
British Nuclear Group has safely and successfully achieved a key milestone in preparing for future waste retrievals from one of the historic waste storage ponds at Sellafield.
The pond, built in the 1950s, processed 27,000 tonnes of fuel during its operational life. It ceased decanning operations in 1986, but still contains significant volumes of historical waste, including fuel skips.
An extensive survey of the pond was completed on 14 September following many months of painstaking survey operations.
Numerous plant experts analysed over 5,000 hours of footage, comparing visible items with plant drawings and databases, to create an impressive reality map of the pond. The finished survey was performed using a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) supplied and operated by Rumic Ltd, and signifies early delivery against yet another PBI by British Nuclear Group.
The purpose of the survey was to gain a better understanding of: the pond inventory, skip status and position, pond furniture and miscellaneous waste, radiation profiles, and the quantity of sludge in the pond.
Every inch of the pond was captured by the ROV’s video camera, while its on-board instrumentation measured radiation levels throughout the pond. The opportunity was also taken to survey the reinforced concrete pond structure itself, providing valuable information on its internal condition. Eleven Skip Transfer Bays, the routes for moving skips between the pond and the old Inlet and Decanning Buildings, were also examined in detail.
Dorothy Gradden, Head of Delivery for the project said: “The results of this survey have positive and far-reaching consequences. We now have a more detailed understanding of the problem we are dealing with, and a solid foundation that we can build retrievals solutions upon. The analysis has already highlighted that pond retrievals need to be significantly different to previous assumptions. We have calculated that this fresh knowledge, combined with our new tactical plan for pond management, will have a dramatic effect on future plans to remediate this historic legacy pond, and our breakthrough thinking will generate environmental advantages while accelerating retrievals at reduced technical risk and cost.”
Reconciliation between the survey output and existing pond and materials accountancy databases is ongoing. It is anticipated that the results of the survey will facilitate future Physical Inventory Verifications (PIV’s) by the safeguards regulator Euratom, who performed a successful PIV at the facility in early October.
