Bechtel Cavendish Nuclear Solutions said recently it has received a two-year extension on its existing contract to continue work at a 1950s nuclear waste silo on the United Kingdom’s Sellafield Site in northern England.
Since 2012 the team led by Virginia-based Bechtel has been designing and installing access doors and remote-handling equipment to help retrieve 3,200 cubic meters of radioactive cladding from sealed compartments. The material was once used for uranium fuel rods in early nuclear reactors and the cleanup is considered one of Europe’s most hazardous, according to a June 25 press release.
No value for the two-year extension was disclosed.
The Pile Fuel Cladding Silo project, as it is known, is meant to help Sellafield Ltd., retrieve and package the waste, preparing it for permanent disposal. The Bechtel-led project team developed a way to cut openings and install doors at the top of the 60-foot-tall silo’s storage compartments while maintaining an airtight seal to reduce the threat of a spontaneous fire within, according to Bechtel background material.
