The end of Zebra....
April 29, 2010
The acceleration of the project to demolish the office block associated with Winfrith’s former research reactor, ZEBRA (Zero Energy Breeder Reactor Assembly) was made possible when RSRL seized the opportunity of funding released under the NDA’s portfolio management scheme.
The removal of the office block was the last piece in the ZEBRA decommissioning jigsaw. The experimental reactor ZEBRA itself was decommissioned and dismantled in 2006, after a long and illustrious career in pure research.
First operational in 1962, the reactor was never designed to produce energy but acted as a prototype to simulate the properties of fast reactor cores. It played an important part in the UK’s fast reactor research programme at Dounreay and was also involved in collaborative reactor research programmes overseas, including in Japan.
ZEBRA operated safely for twenty years until 1982, when it was shut down and the fuel removed. It was placed in care and maintenance from 1989 until preparations for decommissioning began in 2001. The final decommissioning stage was reached in late 2004 and decommissioning was completed in 2006, to time and to cost.
Key challenges in the decommissioning included the removal of contaminated plant and pipework, industrial hazards such as asbestos, and the final demolition of the reactor’s huge bioshield. 360 tonnes of waste was produced in the decommissioning, 200 tonnes of it low level waste. Demolition of this last reminder was approved under the NDA’s short-notice funding scheme in mid-December 2009, started before Christmas and finished by the end of March 2010.
For further information contact Emma Burwood RSRL (Winfrith) Communications Manager.
