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Winfrith EAST Treatment Plant (WETP)
17 May 2010
Nuvia Limited is the only private contractor in the UK to have designed, built, commissioned and operated an intermediate level waste (ILW) treatment plant. Under contract to UKAEA (now RSRL) the plant was built to deal with ~ 300m3 of ‘active’ sludge stored in four External Active Sludge Tanks (EAST) at Winfrith. The sludge was generated during the operational lifetime of the Winfrith Steam Generating Heavy Water Reactor (SGHWR). The sludge was fluidised and then pumped from the tanks to the plant where it was encapsulated in cement; allowed to ‘cure’ and then transported to the Treated Radwaste store located on another part of the site.
Once in full production the drum throughput in WETP (Winfrith East Treatment Plant) steadily rose. At its peak it was processing one hundred 500 litre stainless steel drums a month. In 2009 the 1000th drum was produced and the project reached its most challenging point; to deal with the thickest sludge known as the Heel. Nuvia came up with an innovative solution that enabled the collection of smaller quantities of sludge that were then conditioned and fluidised before being pumped to WETP. The last drum - number 1068 - left the plant at the end of April and the Directors of Nuvia visited Winfrith to congratulate the Plant Manager Madoc Hagan not only for completing the operations but completing them with an exemplary safety record.
WETP has been a flagship project for Nuvia and RSRL and throughout its operations it has been visited by many clients, regulators and other stakeholders from the UK and overseas all of whom applauded its success. However, despite innovative attempts by Nuvia to secure WETP as a centre for other UK sludges the plant operations have now ceased and Nuvia is decommissioning WETP as safely and effectively as it was operated.
Picture
Left to right:
Julianne Antrobus (Marketing Director), Richard Birch (Director, Services), Madoc Hagan (WETP Manager), Keith Collett (MD, Nuvia Limited), Ken Robertson (Director, Operations), Mike Roberts Finance Director), Steve Parkinson (Director, Winfrith Contracts)