CNL secures overseas decommissioning contract

The Lingen nuclear power plant had a gross capacity of 268 MWe. It was shut down in 1979 after ten years in operation, and is being decommissioned via a deferred dismantling strategy - sometimes known as safestor - where residual radioactivity is allowed to naturally decay over a period of 40-60 years before final dismantlement takes place. SNC-Lavalin subsidiary Atkins Energy Germany GmbH was last year selected by reactor owner RWE Nuclear GbmH to progress the decommissioning of the reactor, winning a four-year contract for work including segmentation and packaging of the reactor vessel and its internals to enable disposal and subsequent site clearance.

CNL is currently addressing Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's nuclear legacy liabilities, including prototype and test reactors, as well as managing nuclear liabilities at the Chalk River Laboratories nuclear site in Ontario and the Whiteshell Laboratories in Pinawa, Manitoba, and leading the cleanup of historic waste sites. The organisation is now pursuing commercial work in the global decommissioning and waste management market.

"Given CNL's leadership position in the delivery of complex and highly-technical decommissioning projects here in Canada, we’re confident we can be of value to similar projects around the world,” Kristan Schruder, General Manager for Reactor Decommissioning at CNL, said, adding that experience gained at Lingen would help CNL with the decommissioning of Canadian reactors.

The contract will see CNL staff seconded to the Atkins Energy Germany GmbH project to carry out planning and field work as part of the decommissioning team. CNL will also provide manufacturing and deployment services for some of the equipment that will be used to support reactor segmentation, which is considered one of the most challenging aspects of decommissioning, the organisation said.