Skip handler ready to start retrievals at Sellafield 03 January 2013

Sellafield has completed an important step towards retrieving waste from a 60 year-old nuclear fuel storage pond, now that a bespoke skip handler has been brought back to full operation for the first time since the 1990s.

"This is a major step forward in our mission to reduce risk and hazard on the Sellafield site, in accordance with the NDA's requirements," comments Jim French, NMP executive director for Sellafield decommissioning.

"I'm immensely proud of the workforce who used all their expertise and sought innovative solutions to bring the skip handler back into operation. [It] was in such a poor state, from under-investment, that it was actually condemned in 2002 and bringing it back will have a massive impact on the decommissioning programme."

The latest triumph follows the completion of a major refurbishment programme, lasting many years and involving scores of specialist engineers.

The 60 tonne skip handler is an enormous machine that straddles the 19 metre-wide first generation Magnox storage pond (FGMSP). It is used to move skips of fuel, waste and equipment around the pond.

Refurbishment of the machine's supporting steelwork and rails took two years and involved more than 300 workers. It involved working at height over the pond, often in poor weather and against a background of significant radiation.

A new control system was also installed in the original machine and improved tooling designed and manufactured. This will mean that fuel skips can be retrieved and relocated, and fuel and sludge can start to be retrieved from the storage pond.

"Next steps are to create enough space in this busy storage pond to install the equipment to retrieve radioactive sludge from the pond floor," states Dave Skilbeck, head of FGMSP operations.

"The recently installed pipe bridge will transfer the sludge between the FGMSP and the new Sludge Packaging Plant 1, which, when complete, will store the retrieved sludge. The plan is to start sludge retrieval at the end of 2014."

Brian Tinham

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