United Kingdom – Five massive boilers belonging to the Berkeley nuclear power station in the UK are to be transported to Sweden for dismantling and reprocessing.
The 310-tonne boilers have remained on site awaiting disposal ever since the plant ceased operations in 1989. Now Magnox, the management and operations contractor responsible for the site, has partnered up with Studsvik, the Swedish specialist in nuclear decommissioning and waste treatment, to organise their removal.
One boiler will be moved first, followed by the next four in pairs over subsequently days. Penny Wride, Chairman of the Berkeley Site Stakeholder Group, said: ‘It will be exciting to see the boilers moved. It is the ultimate recycling project.’
The logistics of transporting the boilers, measuring 21.3 metres x 5.3 metres, are highly complex. Phone lines and street furniture will have to be removed and on-street parking suspended to ensure their safe passage on low-loaders to the Royal Portbury Dock, Bristol.
On arrival in Sweden, the boilers will be decontaminated. It is expected that up to 95% of the steel can be remelted. Low-level waste residues unsuitable for recycling will be shipped back to the UK for storage at a secure repository at Drigg in north-west England.
Steve McNally, Berkeley site director for Magnox, said this was only the first stage of the process, since there were 15 boilers on the site in all. The company has invited firms interested in disposing of the remaining 10 boilers to come forward.
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