Berkeley heat exchanger disposal contract

Friday, 11 November 2011

Studsvik of Sweden has signed a contract with the UK’s LLW Repository Ltd (LLWR) for the transport and dismantling of old heat exchangers from the Berkeley Magnox nuclear power plant.

 

Removal of one of Berkeley's heat exchangers (Image: Lowther Rolton)

Under the £8 million ($12.8 million) contract - awarded by LLWR on behalf of Magnox Ltd - Studsvik will transport five redundant heat exchangers from the decommissioned Berkeley plant to Sweden, where Studsvik will dismantle them and recycle up to 90% of their metal content. The project is scheduled to take place in 2012, leaving a further ten redundant heat exchangers remaining at the Berkeley site.

 

The heat exchangers, each weighing over 300 tonnes, will be transported by road and sea to Studsvik's facility near Nyköping, Sweden. The facility melts metal scrap, such as stainless steel, carbon steel, copper, aluminium or lead. Melting reduces the volume and weight of the waste, resulting in reduced costs for interim on-site storage and final disposal. The end-product is metal ingots, which can either be immediately free-released as conventional scrap metal or released after a period of decay storage. Residual products (slag, sorted material, cutting and blasting residues and dust from the ventilation filters) and ingots that cannot be free-released are returned to the customer.

 

Heat exchangers allow efficient heat transfer from one fluid to another. They are widely used in space heating, refrigeration, air conditioning, chemical plants, petrochemical plants, petroleum refineries, and natural gas processing as well as power plants.

 

Steve McNally, Magnox site director for Berkeley, commented: "The removal of these boilers will be another important step in preparing the site for entry into 'care and maintenance.' We are confident that in working with LLWR and Studsvik we can deliver another major decommissioning milestone for Magnox and our customer the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority."

 

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News