Final drum leaves WETP.....
August 5, 2010
The Waste Encapsulated Treatment Plant (WETP) at Winfrith has now completed its mission.
It was in 2000 that NUKEM, now NUVIA, was awarded the contract to design, build, operate and decommission the WETP facility; included in this contract was the operation, decommissioning and demolition of the East Active Sludge Tanks (EAST).
RSRL project manager, Cliff Strange, sketches in the history. “Operation started when WETP was opened by Dr Ian Roxburgh, Chief Executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, in May 2005, with the last encapsulated sludge drum transferred to the site Treated Radwaste Store (TRS) in April 2010. During the plant’s lifetime a total of 1068 encapsulated sludge drums have been produced and stored in the TRS, pending final disposal off site.”
Production peaked during 2008, with 100 sludge drums encapsulated in June. During the final recovery of sludge a quantity of dense material, largely comprising silica, and referred to as the “sandy” material, was discovered at the bottom of the tanks.
While the final sludge drums were filled in, a process was developed to recover the sand for encapsulation into 40 litre drums containers, using a recipe agreed between RSRL and LLWR.
The 40 litre drums were held in prepared 200 litre waste drums. The sandy material was recovered using the Big Brute Industrial Vacuum (BB), previously used to recover material too large to process through WETP. The sandy material was recovered in 20kg batches and mixed with a premixed grout in a temporary encapsulation rig. In all, 178 drum were filled using this process.
”The successful completion of the recovery and encapsulation of SGHWR sludges marks a major milestone in the restoration of the Winfrith site,” commented Cliff.
For more information please contact Emma Burwood, RSRL Communications Manager, Winfrith
