Nuclear Decommissioning for RWE Nukem Corporation

Construction Solutions was contracted by RWE Nukem Corporation to provide consulting engineering services, 3D CAD modeling, custom equipment design and development, to supply special purpose diamond wire and to handle operator training and certification for nuclear decommissioning. The overall goal of this project was to design and develop a method for removal of expansion tanks from a reactor containment building.The building was located at Windscale, UK. The area housing the tanks had a background radiation level high enough that it required entrants to be fully suited. They also had a work time of approximately 15 minutes before they were required to exit the area.

Construction Solutions designed a method along with all of the associated equipment to facilitate the removal of these tanks. It was done in a semi-automatic manner requiring operations personnel to enter the containment area only for the initial installation of the cutting equipment. All operations were carried out via remote control which ensured the safety of the operators. The tank was of double wall construction 1200mm diameter. The outer wall was 25mm thick stainless steel and the inner wall was 10mm thick stainless steel. There was a 50mm air gap between the outer tank wall and the inner tank wall. All of the wire sawing equipment needed to be designed to be modular, portable, and easily installed to facilitate the confined working area and the limited operator exposure time. All hydraulic components were designed to work with water-glycol fluids. During cutting operations the diamond wire was cooled by gas. An exact model of the tank and the confined space were constructed to prove the design concept. It also allowed for operator training.

Construction Solutions personnel also conducted on site training and support for the final phase of the project.