Significant Decommissioning Success at a Sellafield Uranium Purification Plant

摘要

Built in the 1950 's, this plant was originally designed to purify depleted uranyl nitrate solution arising fromrnreprocessing operations at the Primary Separation Plant. The facility was used for various other purposes throughout itsrnlifecycle such as research, developmental, and trial based processes. Test rigs were operated in the building from the 1970 'srnuntil 1984 to support development of the process and equipment now used at Sellafield's Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plantrn(Thorp).rnThe extensive decommissioning program for this facility began over twenty years ago. Many challenges have been overcomernthroughout this program such as decommissioning the four main process cells, which contained vessels and pipeline systemsrnthat were contaminated to such levels that workers had to wear pressurized suits to enter the cells. Decommissioning and sizernreduction task were carried out manually using a plasma arc cutting booth.rnIt will be the first major facility within the historic Separation Area at Sellafield to be demolished down to base slab level. The lessons learned from this project will directly benefit numerous decommissioning projects as the clean up at Sellafieldrncontinues.