Trio of waste metal processing contracts for Cyclife

Friday, 9 November 2018

In Finland, Cyclife has been awarded a contract by utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) to process more than 420 tonnes of metallic waste generated through the operation of units 1 and 2 of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant.

Transport of that waste to Cyclife's facility in Nyköping, Sweden began earlier this month. Once at the facility, the metal will be sorted, segmented and decontaminated. The less contaminated metal will then be melted and cast into ingots which will be released for public use. The more contaminated metal will be returned to TVO in 200-litre drums for final disposal.

Cyclife has also been contracted by Spanish utility Nuclenor, operator of the Garoña nuclear power plant, to process some 1000 tonnes of large components and metallic waste. That waste will also be transported to the company's Nyköping facility for segmentation, decontamination and melting. Likewise, secondary waste will be returned to Nuclenor for disposal.

The 446 MWe boiling water reactor at Garoña began operations in 1971 and was idled in mid-December 2012. Nuclenor had applied to renew the plant's operating licence but in August 2017 the Spanish government denied the application and the plant entered the decommissioning phase.

In the UK, Cyclife has won a contract from LLWR Ltd - manager of the UK's low-level waste repository in Cumbria - to treat mixed metal waste from the Sellafield site. Under the contract, 16 containers of metal waste will be treated monthly at Cyclife UK's nearby Metals Recycling Facility. This, Cyclife said, equates to between 700 and 1800 tonnes of metal over the contract period.

France's EDF created Cyclife Holding in July 2016 following the acquisition of the waste treatment activities of Sweden's Studsvik. Cyclife's activities are delivered through several subsidiaries: Cyclife Sweden AB, with facilities for metal recycling, incineration and pyrolysis at its site in Nyköping; Cyclife UK Ltd, with a metal recycling facility near Workington; and Socodei, which operates the Centraco radioactive waste treatment and packaging facility at Codolet, France.

In February, Cyclife said it will treat some 1800 tonnes of metal waste produced during the decommissioning of three Italian nuclear power plants under a contract signed with Societa Gestione Impianti Nucleari SpA (Sogin). That five-year contract is worth about EUR28 million (USD35 million).