U.K. nuclear company Magnox Ltd. is using divers for underwater dismantlement of former spent nuclear fuel storage containers in retired cooling ponds at the shuttered Dungeness A nuclear power plant in Kent, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said Tuesday.
While it has been four years since the former nuclear power plant has contained any used fuel, the storage “skips” are classified as intermediate-level waste that must be addressed. Cutting up the skips underwater avoids the need to take steps to prevent airborne contamination if doing the work on land, according to an NDA press release.
The water will also help protect the divers from radiation exposure. Nonetheless, Magnox will apply strict health and safety measures and oversight for the personnel before, during, and following the dives, NDA said.
The disassembled skips will be placed in waste containers at a shielded storage space at Dungeness A before being prepared for interim storage.
The project will also involve extraction and disassembly of 20 metric tons of machinery and other “pond furniture,” which is classified as low-level waste. The material will be ultimately placed at the Low-Level Waste Repository in West Cumbria.
The cooling ponds project is due to conclude early next year. Afterward, lessons learned could be applied to other reactor decommissioning sites, potentially starting with the Sizewell A site.
Dungeness A operated from 1965 to 2012, and was fully defueled in 2012. Decommissioning is ongoing.
