Multi-Element Bottle Store
Background
A new Multi Element Bottle Export Facility started active commissioning in early 2008 which will allow for the removal of 400 empty multi element bottles, freeing up space for 1,000 tonnes of fuel in the Thorp’s ponds.
Challenge
Light Water Reactor fuel has been stored underwater within these cylindrical containers known as multi element bottles for more than twenty years in some cases.
After the fuel has been removed for reprocessing, the empty bottles have continued to be stores in the ponds because they cannot be reused. There are about 1,200 empty multi element bottles in the pond.
The bottles are now being lifted out of the storage pond, rinsed down and monitored. They are then placed in the multi element bottle tilt frame where they are dewatered and lowered for positioning into the ISO freight containers which are transferred to the new interim store or another storage pond.
The interim store was built in 2007 to accommodate 400 multi element bottles at a cost of £1.5 million. It could be extended to take 1,000 if necessary.
The facility will store the multi-element bottles loaded into special ISO freight containers until a final disposal route is made available.
Tom Gardner, head of manufacturing, fuel services, said: “The start-up of the export facility is very important to allow us the space to store more fuel in the pond system and to provide the flexibility to easily move fuel around in the pond”.
What we do
A bottle being lifted out of the storage pond, rinsed down and monitored.
