Decommissioning at Sellafield Overview

Transcription

1 Decommissioning at Sellafield Overview Edwin Matthews Decommissioning Division Strategy & Technical department Date: 21 st January

2 Although it is tiny in comparison to many nuclear sites... Sellafield Site, UK 6 square kilometres Hanford Site, USA 1,518 square kilometres 3

3 Sellafield Site Development Sellafield 1956 Sellafield

4 Sellafield has more than 60 years of history s/50s 1960s/70s 1980s 1990s 2000s Nuclear build begins Initially a military programme Later civil programme begins Waste stored safely pending treatment Storage capacity extended incrementally Coarse segregation of waste arising from process Magnox reprocessing starts Main expansion of site Major waste treatment focus Environmental impact substantially reduced Decommissioning programme started True commercialisation of reprocessing Thorp online Waste arising from processes treated in real time Product waste forms compatible with disposal concepts Decommissioning gathering pace Sellafield landscape changing forever NDA formed NMP become PBO 5

5 Sellafield Today The world s most complex and compact nuclear facility In excess of 2600 buildings and 290 active facilities dating from 1940s to present day 1 million m 3 concrete above ground, 1 million m 3 concrete below ground 37km road, 15km railway, 120km sewers and 65km water pipes Employs around 10,000 at Sellafield with additional engineering and functional support at its Warrington office Further 5,000 employed through the supply chain Costs > 1.7bn per year to operate 6

6 About Sellafield Ltd Operate Sellafield site, performing decommissioning, reprocessing, nuclear waste management, and fuel manufacturing activities Sites owned by Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) Sellafield Ltd owned and managed by parent body organisation Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) Sellafield Site 7

7 Site Operations Today Legacy Ponds & Silos Spent Fuel Management Waste and Effluent Disposition Environmental Remediation Sellafield MOx Plant 8

8 Priorities of the Sellafield Portfolio Safe and secure storage of the nuclear inventory and compliance with the site licence Risk reduction in high hazard areas Hazard reduction in high hazard areas Risk reduction in low hazard areas Commercial operations Hazard reduction in low hazard areas 9

9 Hazard and Environmental Risk Challenges Legacy wastes in ponds and silos Alpha active floc and sludge Solid intermediate level waste Highly active liquid wastes Plutonium contaminated material Contaminated land Decommissioning 10

10 Decommissioning Overview 11

11 Introduction: Decommissioning at the Sellafield Site Legacy Ponds & Silos Remediation Portfolio Pile Fuel Storage Pond Pile Fuel Cladding Silo Magnox Swarf Storage Silo First Generation Magnox Storage Pond 12

12 High Hazard Programmes Top 5 High Hazard Programmes at Sellafield: Highly Active Liquor Pile Fuel Storage Pond First Generation Magnox Storage Pond Magnox Swarf Storage Silos Pile Fuel Cladding Silo The 5 High Hazard programmes represent: 22% of all site programmes 35% of the total site costs in the first 4 years 77% of the major project costs in the first 4 years 13

13 Scale of Challenge The various facilities subject to decommissioning activities have a huge range of radiologically challenging inventories Many tonnes of highly active sludge A range of miscellaneous beta-gamma solid wastes Spent fuel & Spent fuel debris Radiologically significant cover water and effluent 14

14 Pile Fuel Storage Pond Legacy Constructed to store, cool and prepare Windscale Pile fuel for reprocessing Waste consists of fuel, sludge, miscellaneous Intermediate Level Waste and Low Level Waste NEAR TERM MILESTONES Exported 16 redundant fuel skips March 10 Desludged bays 7-12 March 10 Closeout of the Safety Significant shortfalls (regulatory commitment) LETP installed to clean activity in pond water Sludge Hood Installed and bulk sludge transferred to Corral 6 wet decanning and withdrawal bays desludged Skips removed Baseline Plan Sludge retrievals to an in-pond corral Local Sludge Treatment Plant* (LSTP) for short term storage of sludge Drum Filling Plant* (DFP) to package sludge into 3m 3 boxes and export for long term interim storage Oxide fuel to Oxide Fuels Storage Ponds for reprocessing Metal fuel to Fuel Handling Plant (FHP) via EEC for interim storage Remaining solid ILW inventory to pond solids conditioning facility, and packaged into 3m 3 boxes for long term interim storage * New Facility 15

15 Pile Fuel Cladding Silo Legacy Legacy Waste Dry Silo with earliest parts of Building date from 1950s Waste primarily consists of aluminium pile fuel cladding, but also has significant quantity of Magnox Swarf and miscellaneous other items Creating Space for PFCS Retrieval Infrastructure Silo Off Gas System Installed and Inactively Commissioned East Tower Steel Work Refurbishment Removal of redundant Shield Wall Baseline Plan Civil Build of Retrieval Superstructure Goliath Crane Installation Door Installation & Hole Cutting Modular Retrieval Machine Housing Bulk Waste Retrievals of raw waste into product boxes before local PFCS waste treatment plant for immobilisation Long term intermediate storage in Box Encapsulation Plant Product Store* (BEPPS) via Direct Import Facility* (DIF) * New Facility 16

16 First Generation Magnox Storage Pond Legacy Constructed 1950 s 1960 s to store, cool and prepare Magnox fuel for reprocessing Waste consists of sludge, Magnox fuel, miscellaneous ILW and LLW material Successful installation and commissioning of the pond purge unit Assembly of first of three SPP1 Buffer Storage Vessels Isolation of RESPs lines Bay remediation trials Baseline Plan Sludge retrieved into Sludge Packaging Plant 1* (SPP1) storage tanks for short term storage Sludge immobilised into 3m 3 boxes and exported to Box Encapsulation Plant Product Store* (BEPPS) for long term interim storage Fuel exported to Fuel Handling Plant (FHP) for short term storage Pond solids and fuel in FHP routed to Box Encapsulation Plant* (BEP) for pretreatment/conditioning and transfer to BEPPS* for long term interim storage Bulk decanner bay ILW retrieved and exported to Miscellaneous Beta Gamma Waste Store or Waste Encapsulation Plant for conditioning and long term interim storage * New Facility Hot & Cold Test rigs for Isolations 17

17 Magnox Swarf Storage Silo Legacy Constructed 1960s 1980s to hold irradiated decanning wastes Waste consists of Magnox Swarf and miscellaneous Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) Waste receipts until 2000 Replacement of 30 Beta in Air monitors 2 SEP machines at the NESL facility Package Skip Hoist Endurance Trials Test Rig Baseline Plan Liquor Activity Reduction (LAR) transfer of liquor to Site Ion Exchange Effluent Plant (SIXEP) 3 Silo Emptying Plants* (SEP) for waste retrievals Waste to Sellafield Direct Encapsulation Plant* (SDP) and Box Transfer Facility* for immobilisation in 3m3 boxes Long term intermediate storage in Encapsulated Product Store 3* (EPS3) or Box Encapsulation Plant Product Store* (BEPPS) via Direct Import Facility* (DIF) * New Facility Routine Liquor Activity Reduction transfers to SIXEP Established 18

18 Site Remediation & Decommissioning Projects (SR&DP) Pile Chimney Windscale Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor Pile Reactors Windscale Background The Windscale Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor was built in the late 1950s as a demonstration reactor and was the forerunner to the fleet of AGR reactors. Baseline Plan Continued Decommissioning of the Windscale Site. Decision taken in early 2010/2011 to defer broad front decommissioning in support of higher hazard programmes. Background The Pile Reactors Built as part of the British atomic Programme in the years following World War II. They were the country s first large scale nuclear reactors. Removal of redundant glove boxes General Decommissioning Primary Separation Plant Land Quality Separation Area Ventilation Project First Generation Reprocessing Plants Workstreams in SR&DP - First Generation Reprocessing Plants (FGRP) - General Decommissioning - Land Quality Background Many of the facilities within the SR&DP portfolio supported early nuclear reprocessing operations from the Pile Reactors. Additional facilities were constructed to support fuel fabrication used on other nuclear plants in the UK. Baseline Plan Primary focus is on hazard and risk reduction. Initial focus is on removing the risk posed by the Primary Separation Plant stack and maintaining safe and compliant operations. Commissioning of Separation Area Ventilation plant - March 2014 Primary Separation Plant Stack removed - June 2015 Pile 1 Chimney reduced to 35m level - July

19 LTP11 Budget Spend in High Hazard Facilities Performance Plan Lifetime Cost ( M) Pile Fuel Storage Pond First Generation Magnox Storage Pond Magnox Swarf Storage Silo 5, Magnox Swarf Storage Silos Pile Fuel Cladding Silo Grand Total 400 First Generation Magnox Storage Pond 3,863 M Pile Fuel Storage Pond Pile Fuel Cladding Silo 1, Total 10,

20 Decommissioning Activities 1 FGMSP Key Successes in Hot Tap, Cold Tap and High Level Service Line Trials in preparation for enhancing primary containment protection Bay improvement project. Significant part of the ongoing risk reduction programme Return to service of the facility skip handling capability is on target. Necessary to begin retrievals HLSL Hammock Trials Complete Bay Complete SEP1 Phase1 Build Complete MSSS LAR Exceeded Expectations MSSS Liquor Activity Reduction significantly exceeding stretch target. Technology endorsement for waste treatment plant well advanced On schedule to install major waste retrieval machines by 2016 Modifications/upgrades to ageing facility to support retrieval operations 21

21 Decommissioning Activities 2 PFSP Sludge hood installation and Bulk Sludge Transfer into corral significant step forward, albeit with sludge behaviour lessons Metal Fuel consolidation ongoing Washing and removal of skips commenced in earnest Commence Routine Skip Washing Complete Goliath Crane Contract Award Complete PFCS Major EPC contract award milestone Regulatory Acceptance of Superstructure Civil Safety Case SR&DP Separation Area Ventilation stack nearing completion Ion exchange and heat exchanger vessels successfully removed from historic lab in analytical services building North Group historic buildings demolished SAV Windshield Slipform Complete 22

22 Key Factors Going Forward in Decommissioning Realising efficiencies and providing greater value for money Workforce transitions Agile workforce Mobility Culture change Learning Organisation Disciplined Operations Nuclear Safety Advancing high hazard reduction Asset management improvements Technical challenges Programme of R&D to address the decommissioning challenges. The goal of the programme is that it not only ensures that the appropriate technology solutions are in place to satisfy the existing site decommissioning plan but also provides the opportunities for the decommissioning to be accelerated. 23

23 Sellafield s Future Role in Cumbria Over 100 years work on site and > 40bn spend (2011 economic conditions) Decommissioning Operating Fabricating Building NDA land for sale at Sellafield for new reactor sites Sellafield Ltd s role in Socio Economics to develop West Cumbria Vision and Britain s Energy Coast (BEC) 24

24 Thanks Questions 25