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Bradwell Nuclear Power Station – FED Retrieval Crane

The decommissioning of a nuclear power station involves numerous processes to extract, package and store radioactive waste materials. At the Bradwell Magnox station, the FED (Fuel Element Debris) waste was identified as a radiological risk and needed to be safely collected and stored. SCX was contracted to design, engineer, build and install a semi-automatic FED Retrieval solution that would perform multiple waste-handling tasks at the Bradwell site.

The Challenge

As part of the decommissioning of Bradwell Nuclear Power Station, a specialist crane solution was required for the extraction, handling, and deposit of FED (Fuel Element Debris).

This included the removal and transport of waste-containing drums, loading of the dissolution vessel, and removal of intermediate-level waste (ILW) from the vessel for export. In addition, the crane should serve multiple additional remote handling operations throughout the facility.

The Solution

SCX designed and manufactured a semi-automatic crane with a safe working load (SWL) of 5t, which is protected by our unique MotoSuiveur load arrest device.

Alongside manual control, the operator can use nineteen pre-determined automatic pathways for the accurate coupling of the crane with each of the various load types, maintaining a high level of safety while ensuring ease of use.

Technical Details

Explore more specialist handling solutions from SCX