Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (DSRL) oversees the decommissioning of Dounreay nuclear power station in northern Scotland. One major project is a facility to store intermediate level waste, packaged into cement and steel drums, which are then placed in long-term storage.
The client needed a semi-automatic crane to handle the 500-litre drums, moving them to their correct locations and carefully adding them to the store. The crane is sacrificial, to be left in the drum store once its job is complete.
SCX Special Projects designed, built, tested and installed a double-girder, overhead travelling crane with a bespoke rotating and latching grapple.
The solution comprised a MOTS (modified off the shelf) crane with a true vertical lift hoist design; the MotoSuiveur hoist safety and load recovery system, plus bespoke safety and redundancy features, including CCTV and remote recovery in case of primary mechanical or electrical failure.