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Nuclear Storage Pond – Waste Removal Mast & Gantry Assembly

Aerospace, Nuclear & Defence

The Challenge

Decommissioning an old Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) outdoor storage pond at a UK nuclear-licensed facility is a careful procedure with many stages.

In this situation, one of the precursor operations that this facility had to undertake was the removal of all of the mobile ILW sludge that had accumulated within the 5.3m deep pond over numerous years before the dismantling of the old pond storage structure could commence.

Nuclear Storage Pond - Waste Removal Mast and Gantry Assembly
Nuclear Storage Pond - Waste Removal Mast and Gantry Assembly

The Solution

SCX were brought in to design and manufacture a bespoke single-stage mast and gantry assembly, capable of supporting and manoeuvring a sludge retrieval vacuum pump, which would lead to the sludge being stored in modern stainless steel containment.

The mast assembly is mounted on an X-Y-Z travelling gantry bridge capable of sweeping the entire length and width of the pond, while risk mitigation for all adverse eventualities came built-in to ensure safe and reliable operation.

Technical Details

Explore more specialist handling solutions from SCX