Achievements
Harwell Achievements:
- A significant landmark was reached in February using Retrieval Machine 2 (RM2). Despite the machine being the early stages of commissioning the successful recovery of the first long can was achieved 16 days ahead of schedule.
RM2 was designed to recover 8000 remote handled waste cans which have been stored for upto 50 years. However 22 of the waste cans are too long to be exported to the processing facility once recovered. This has lead to developing a strategy to place the can into a specially designed overpack in the RM2 containment. The overpack is then placed back into an empty storage tube once the historic waste cans have been recovered. Once all of the long cans have been overpacked RM2 will have specialist equipment installed to enable the items to be sized reduced so they can be exported as standard waste cans to the processing facility.
These achievements were made by the commitment of the staff on this project overcoming a number of challenging issues in very short timescales using considerable initiative and expertise.
- The final phase of Harwell’s Waste Encapsulation Plant project – inactive commissioning – began during the autumn and is expected to be completed by March 2009. The plant – where Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) is to be recovered, checked and cemented into 500 litre stainless steel drums ready for long-term storage – is scheduled to be operational by mid-2010.
- More than 2,500 cans of ILW were processed through Harwell’s Head End Cells, as part of waste recovery operations for the Vault Store. The waste is being characterised and loaded into stainless steel drums which will be processed in the Waste Encapsulation Plant.
- The second Retrieval Machine (RM2), which will be used to significantly speed up the rate at which waste cans from storage holes can be removed, was delivered and assembled. RM2 is due to be fully operational in 2009.
- A major programme to decommission and repackage redundant gloveboxes from a radiochemistry facility was completed.
- A total of 28 canisters of radium contaminated wastes were conditioned and packaged ready for long-term storage.
- Work to clear the eastern part to the site moved forward with the decommissioning of a former 1940s RAF sergeants’ mess building.
- An innovative decontamination technique was trialled during the decommissioning and demolition of the chemical dosing building, part of the Harwell’s Liquid Effluent Treatment Plant. This technique allowed debris to be segregated from the overall waste stream, significantly reducing waste managements costs.
- A post-irradiation examination facility became the first Category 1 facility at Harwell to reach the final stages of decommissioning. It was re-categorised as a Category 4 facility reflecting the completion of work to reduce its residual radioactivity to low levels.
- The demolition of two former RAF hangars, Hangar 7 and 8. Hangar 7 was home to one of the country’s first particle accelerators. Harwell Synchrocyclotron, ultimately the precursor to the world-leading Diamond Synchrotron project. It also housed ZETA (Zero Energy Thermonuclear Assembly). ZETA was used for studying the controlled release of energy from nuclear fusion, and led to the development of modern fusion facilities such as JET and ITER. Hangar 8 housed the first reactor in Western Europe, GLEEP (Graphic Low Energy Experimental Pile).
- The demolition of a 40-metre high Tandem tower, which housed a pioneering accelerator, built in 1958. During its lifetime the accelerator contributed to the improvement of car engine performance and spacecraft safety.
- GLEEP (Graphite Low Energy Experimental Pile), the first reactor in Western Europe successfully decommissioned. GLEEP was initially used to investigate how to make a reactor work and later an an international standard for materials testing and calibration. It was closed in 1990 after 43 years of operation.
- The successful clean up and remediation of 24 chemical waste pits. This involved using pioneering clean-up techniques to tackle the contaminants in the chalk, above the water table and below the pits.
Please also refer to the Harwell Key Achievements Brochure 2008-09 found on our publications page
GLEEP Reactor
