Sellafield sets up to demolish tallest historic chimney 22 July 2014

Sellafield is finalising plans to demolish an iconic 61-metre chimney that sits on top of a main 11-storey reprocessing plant at the site – making it the tallest historic structure at Europe's oldest nuclear plant.

Project manager Matthew Hodgson explains that explosives have been ruled out, because of the chimney's location at the heart of one of the busiest areas of this complex site.

Instead, the team will use a platform to remove the 600 tonnes of concrete and rebar, and over 25 tonnes of stainless steel that make up the huge structure – a process taking several years.

"We have employed Nuvia, [which] has been working with us and a number of other contractors, including Delta Steeplejacks, for the last three years on the demolition scheme," says Hodgson.

He describes the structure being implemented as an "ingenious, self-climbing platform", designed to bring the chimney down bit by bit in a controlled manner.

In fact, it's the same technique as was used recently in the demolition of Battersea Power Station's famous chimneys, which have since been re-built to preserve the appearance of Lonsdon's iconic building.

"A mini-replica of the tapered chimney will be built to test the methodology, as the diameter of the chimney increases the lower you go down, so the platform will correspondingly have to increase in size," explains Hodgson.

"A specialist diamond wire cutting system will be used to remove large sections of the concrete structure and the internal metal flue, all of which will have to be lowered to the base of the stack for monitoring before disposal."

Head of decommissioning Steve Slater believes the project will provide a very visual demonstration of Sellafield's commitment to tackling Sellafield's legacy.

"The plant was built in the shadow of the war to secretly produce nuclear materials for the UK's defence programme," comments Slater.

"It reprocessed fuel from the pile reactors and was then later used for commercial fuel reprocessing before the Thorp reprocessing plant took over," he continues.

"It's going to be out with the old and in with the new, with the new separation area ventilation (SAV) stack taking over. Work to construct that new replacement stack is continuing."

Brian Tinham

Related Companies
Nuvia Ltd
Sellafield Ltd

This material is protected by MA Business copyright
See Terms and Conditions.
One-off usage is permitted but bulk copying is not.
For multiple copies contact the sales team.