Six corporate teams have been approved to compete for £400 million ($517 million) worth of decommissioning projects at the former Dounreay fast-reactor site in Scotland.
Opportunities under a broad decommissioning services framework include building a size reduction facility, shaft and silo decommissioning, and teardown of historic active laboratories, according to a Tuesday announcement from decommissioning prime Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd.
“Six framework contracts have been awarded, bringing together the capabilities of at least 28 companies and their supply chains, initially for up to 4 years with the possibility of extensions of up to an additional 3 years,” the company said. “It will take work at the site, delivered on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), into a new phase when historic wastes from the shaft, silo and low level waste pits are due to be retrieved, repackaged and consigned to modern waste facilities.”
The nearly 215-foot-deep shaft was used from 1959 through the late 1970s for disposal of radioactive waste from the site, the BBC reported Wednesday.
The competing teams are:
- AECOM E&C UK; MW Hargreaves; Kier Infrastructure and Overseas; Morson Projects; NIS; NSG Environmental; Squibb Group; Westinghouse Electrical Co. UK
- Dounreay Decommissioning Framework (DDF) Alliance; Cavendish Nuclear; BAM Nuttall; KDC Contractors; JGC Engineering and Technical Services
- Dounreay Wood Alliance (DWA); Wood; Aquila Nuclear Engineering; GD Energy Services; Orano Projects
- Jacobs UK; Atkins
- Nuclear Decommissioning Ltd. (NDL); James Fisher Nuclear; REACT Engineering; Shepley Engineers; WYG Engineering; JBV Demolition; RPS Consulting Services
- Nuvia; Graham Construction; Oxford Technologies; Thompson of Prudhoe
Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd. is owned by the Cavendish Dounreay Partnership, a teaming of Cavendish Nuclear, Jacobs Engineering, and AECOM.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission hopes in August to begin a series of at least 10 meetings to gather public input for preparation of a congressionally mandated report on best practices for local community boards to provide advice on nuclear decommissioning projects.
The report is due by 2020 under the terms of Sen. John Barrasso’s (R-Wy.) Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act, which was signed into law in January. In March, the NRC issued a notice requesting suggestions for meeting locations. It received at least 20 comments by the April 17 deadline.
“Now that we have the various suggestions, we are drawing up a list of cities, then we will look for specific venues to hold the meetings,” NRC spokesman David McIntyre said by email Monday. “We hope to announce those in mid-July, with the meetings beginning in August.”
The community advisory boards, under the Barrasso legislation, would be intended “to foster communication and information exchange between a licensee planning for and involved in decommissioning activities and members of the community that decommissioning activities may affect, including lessons learned from any such board in existence before the date of enactment of this Act.”
Among the proposed meeting locations were: San Luis Obispo County, Calif., where the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is scheduled to be retired in 2025; Lacey Township, N.J., where the Oyster Creek Generating Station closed in September; the Vernon-Brattleboro region in Vermont, home to the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, which shut down in 2014; and Citrus County, Fla., where the shuttered Crystal River facility is being considered for expedited decommissioning.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) called for a meeting in Westchester County, N.Y., where the Indian Point Energy Center is due to close by April 2021. Owner Entergy announced last week it intends to sell the plant to Holtec International for decommissioning.
“The community has already raised a number of concerns about the transparency of the decommissioning process, as well as the potential impacts, including the sufficiency of the decommission trust fund, the effect on site workers, the safe storage and transportation of spent fuel, and the long term remediation of the site,” Gillibrand wrote in an April 16 message to NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki. “These are all important issues that are relevant to the NRCs stakeholder process. Additionally, Indian Points proximity to New York City and densely populated suburban communities raise unique considerations that must be addressed.”
Used nuclear fuel storage specialist NAC International said this week it had secured a certificate of compliance from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for its MAGNATRAN transport cask.
The April 5 licensing approval enables the Georgia company to use the cask for transport of its MAGNASTOR spent fuel dry-storage canisters. “Although there are no existing contracts for the delivery of this new cask, NAC is actively marketing this new model to potential new customers,” the company said in response to questions from RadWaste Monitor.
MAGNASTOR is used for storage of spent fuel at four U.S. nuclear power plants: the McGuire Nuclear Station in North Carolina and Catawba Nuclear Station in South Carolina, both owned by Duke Energy; the nearly decommissioned Zion Nuclear Power Station in Illinois, owned by Exelon; and Dominion Energy’s retired Kewaunee Power Station in Wisconsin. It is also expected to be deployed to the Palo Verde plant in Arizona and the Three Mile Island facility in Pennsylvania, along with Taiwan’s Kuosheng power plant.
For shipment to an off-site location, a gantry crane would transfer the MAGNASTOR canisters from their on-site concrete overpacks to the MAGNATRAN transport cask, and then place the cask on a railcar for transport.
Federal law requires the Department of Energy to remove spent fuel from U.S. power plants for disposal – though the deadline to begin passed on Jan. 31, 1998.
NAC is working with an Orano-Waste Control Specialists joint venture, Interim Storage Partners, to develop a facility in West Texas for consolidated interim storage of spent fuel until a permanent repository is ready. If the facility receives necessary licensing from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it would become a temporary home to the MAGNASTOR canisters.
“Although the primary application envisioned was for the transportation of MAGNASTOR canistered spent fuel, NAC anticipates other potential uses for this highly efficient transport cask system that will extend well beyond spent fuel shipments to a CISF or repository,” the company said. Potential materials for transport could include low-level radioactive waste and Greater-Than-Class C Waste.
From The Wires
From New Europe: France is considering options for processing 1.6 million cubic meters of nuclear waste.
From the Milwaukee Business Journal: NorthStar Medical Technologies secures up to $100 million in financing for its medical isotope production operations.
From Reuters: Norway to retire and decommission its final research reactor.
From the Pennsylvania Capital-Star: Environmentalists question use of decommissioning funding for Exelon’s Three Mile Island power plant reactor for waste storage operations.
