News & Events
RWE NUKEM awarded Design & Build of Harwell Waste Encapsulation Plant
14 April 2005
UKAEA has awarded Phase 2 of the Harwell Waste Encapsulation Plant (WEP), a 3 year design and build contract, to RWE NUKEM.
Following a competitive tender exercise last year, UKAEA implemented a two phase contract strategy for the Harwell WEP. The first phase produced the concept design and the tender for the second phase. RWE NUKEM was delighted to receive confirmation in March 2005, of the award of Phase II for this multi-million pound contract which includes the detailed design, construction, installation and commissioning, together with all associated safety documentation necessary to receive the Authority to Operate the system.
UKAEA’s strategy for managing radioactive waste includes an objective to achieve passive safe storage of intermediate level waste (ILW) until a disposal route is available. To meet this objective at Harwell, UKAEA intends to retrieve the site’s historic remote handled ILW and repackage it in Nirex approved, 500 litre, stainless steel drums. Passive safety will be achieved when this waste has been encapsulated within a cementitious grout. This is to be completed by 2015 or sooner, and it is the Waste Encapsulation Plant (WEP) that will carry out this process.
Most of the Harwell ILW is currently kept in small cans in three below ground, vertical tube stores in buildings B462.2, B462.26 and B462.9. These are in the process of being recovered and transferred to the Head End Cells where the cans are assayed and emptied and the waste repacked into 500 litre drums. These are then removed to the Vault Store (B462.27) for interim storage pending the start of WEP operations.
The WEP is a compact facility with a shielded cell line constructed in concrete and with a Grouting Cell contained in a single stainless steel box. The waste drums are moved around the facility on a series of roller conveyors. The waste drums in the Vault Store are free from external contamination and it is essential that the uncontaminated condition of the Store is maintained by ensuring the grouted drums are returned in a clean state. The WEP achieves this through the use of double-lidded ports in the Grouting Cell.
The WEP design objectives are to:
- produce an efficient and effective design for the new facility that will encapsulate the identified waste stream in a cementitious grout.
- ensure that the WEP product, i.e. the encapsulated waste, satisfies the Nirex Stage 3 Letter of Comfort.
- complete encapsulation by no later than 2015.
- permit the addition at some later date of a Waste Export Facility that will be the means by which the encapsulated waste will leave the Vault Store and be delivered to the national repository.
Engineering Director and RWE NUKEM’s Head of Site at Harwell, Mike Brewin said, “I am delighted that UKAEA have selected RWE NUKEM Limited as the main contractor for the Waste Encapsulation Plant at Harwell. This is a very important project for both parties and our success in winning the competition for the contract is testimony to the hard work put in and innovation displayed by the design and bid teams within RWE NUKEM. This contract builds upon our long experience in the design and construction of radioactive waste encapsulation facilities.”
The project will be run from RWE NUKEM’s Major Projects Division. Ken Jackson the Division’s Director said “I know that the project manager, John Deakin, and his project team have already started work and are committed to delivering a successful project.”