Radioactive material jammed inside a Scottish nuclear reactor since the 1970s has been removed for disposal. Remotely-operated tools were specially made to extract the breeder elements from the Dounreay Fast Reactor (DFR). The DFR and its dome-shaped housing are to be demolished as part of the wider decommissioning of the former nuclear power site near Thurso. Dismantling the 60-year-old DFR is among the most challenging of the decommissioning work.

BBC 15th Oct 2019 read more »

Dounreay shared its knowledge of nuclear decommissioning with more than 50 specialists who attended an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting at the site last week. Drawn from industry, government, regulators and academia, the group travelled to Caithness in Scotland to take part in a technical meeting about the work needed to leave the site in a safe condition for future generations. Its particular focus was contaminated land and the use of characterisation approaches. Dounreay is recognised as one of the most complex nuclear site closure projects, involving the clean-up and demolition of dozens of facilities contaminated with radioactivity. It includes an extensive programme to characterise land affected by historic operations and the development of strategies to protect future generations once the site is closed.

Dounreay 15th Oct 2019 read more »

The UK’s chief nuclear inspector has highlighted the “considerable progress” being made to tackle hazards and risks at the Sellafield site in West Cumbria. In his first annual report on the nuclear sector’s safety and security performance, Mark Foy, praised progress made on removing significant volumes of radioactive waste and spent fuel from legacy storage ponds along with preparations for retrieving hazardous materials from the site’s legacy silos. Together with improvements to the Special Nuclear Material (North) Complex, they were among the several high-priority projects that came to fruition in 2018-19, he said.

Carlisle News & Star 15th Oct 2019 read more »

BREAKING NEWS: Ann McCall, Siting Director for RWM, the organisation responsible for delivering the UK’s geological disposal facility, will leave the company at the end of the year. Following news of RWM MD Bruce McKirdy’s retirement, it is thought that her departure forms part of the wider review of organisational leadership being conducted by RWM’s parent organisation, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). No further information is yet available. We will update you as further information becomes available.

GDF Watch 15th Oct 2019 read more »

A species of photosynthetic bacterium could help to soak up radioactive contaminants in polluted waterways. Benjamin Kocar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Karim Benzerara at the Sorbonne University in Paris and their colleagues found that the bacterium Gloeomargarita lithophora is particularly adept at sucking up the radioactive isotopes radium-226 and strontium-90. The former has a half-life of 1,600 years, can be found in mining and power-plant runoff, and is one of the most common radioisotopes in groundwater. By contrast, 90Sr mainly reaches waterways from nuclear tests and accidents, and has a half-life of 29 years. Both are thought to pose risks to the environment and human health, and prior research has explored the ability of various microbes, fungi and other organisms to gobble them up.

Nature 15th Oct 2019 read more »

THE Tees Valley Mayor has criticised a plan to dispose of radioactive materials in the North-East, several years after a similar plan was rejected in Cumbria. Ben Houchen said Teesside could not become “Britain’s nuclear dumping ground”, following an application to dump hazardous materials at a landfill site. The application by Augean North for a licence for the disposal of nuclear waste at the Port Clarence landfill site has been submitted to The Environment Agency. The landfill site, between Stockton and Billingham, deals with non-hazardous and hazardous materials, including those recovered from North Sea oil and gas projects. Augean has said previously the firm has “extensive” experience of safely handling low-level radioactive waste at its landfill site in Northamptonshire, and the current operation of the Port Clarence site as a “safe, secure, sustainable and well-regulated site for the disposal and treatment of hazardous wastes” means it is suitable for similar materials. But Mr Houchen said granting the landfill site’s radioactive waste license would be against the interests of those living in surrounding areas. He said: “People from Port Clarence, Billingham and Middlesbrough, plus the surrounding areas have a right to sleep safe in their homes, free from the spectre of radioactive waste.

Northern Echo 15th Oct 2019 read more »

A bid to store radioactive waste on Teesside has sparked worries the area will become a national “dumping ground”. Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has railed against plans by national firm Augean to store “low-level” waste at a site near Port Clarence – saying the bid is “inappropriate” and “against the best interests” of Teessiders. The Tory mayor has also claimed the moves are “unsafe” – but the company has flatly denied this, accusing him of “causing unnecessary public alarm”.

Teeside Gazette 15th Oct 2019 read more »

Advances in 3D printing are poised to transform the nuclear industry as scientists reap the benefits of creating flexible materials, parts and sensors layer by layer. Additive manufacturing can even help us recycle used nuclear fuel more efficiently, according to a new pivotal breakthrough by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. We can recycle waste from nuclear reactors in several ways, including one method developed by Argonne scientists in the 1970s. With these approaches, nuclear engineers can recycle 95 percent of the spent nuclear fuel from a reactor, leaving only five percent to be stored as long-term waste. But now, for the first time, Argonne scientists have printed 3-D parts that pave the way to recycling even more nuclear waste, as detailed in a September 6, 2019, article in Scientific Reports.

Sci Tech Daily 13th Oct 2019 read more »

Half the remaining radioactive fuel elements jammed inside the Dounreay Fast Reactor (DFR) have now been removed.

Energy Voice 14th Oct 2019 read more »

Half of the last remaining radioactive fuel elements jammed for decades inside the iconic Dounreay Fast Reactor (DFR) have now been removed.

Dounreay 11th Oct 2019 read more »

Half of the last remaining radioactive fuel elements inside the Dounreay Fast Reactor (DFR) have now been removed, Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (DSRL) has announced. The elements had been jammed inside the reactor, and their removal has been a top priority for its decommissioning. DFR, at Dounreay in northern Scotland, achieved criticality in November 1959 and in October 1962 became the world’s first fast reactor to supply electricity to the grid. Developed at a time of uranium shortage, the reactor’s core was surrounded by a blanket of natural uranium elements that, when exposed to radiation, would “breed” to create a new fuel, plutonium. The reactor, which was cooled by a liquid sodium-potassium alloy, achieved a maximum electrical power of 14.5 MWe and was shut down in 1977. Most of the core fuel was removed from the reactor after its closure, but almost 1000 elements from the breeder zone were found to be swollen and jammed, and were left in place. Recovery of the jammed elements, using purpose-built remotely-operated tools that reached down into the reactor to cut the breeder elements free and lift them into a flask for removal to the next stage of the process, began in 2017. Locally manufactured tooling has played a big part in the successful removal of half the remaining radioactive fuel inventory inside the reactor vessel.

World Nuclear News 11th Oct 2019 read more »