UCC DIVE | ADVERTORIAL
Improving Nuclear Cleanup: The Power of Nuclear Diving Expertise
THE USE OF NUCLEAR DIVERS IN THE DECOMMISSIONING of spent fuel ponds, pools, and basins offers unparalleled opportunities for enhanced safety, expedited timelines, and cost savings. These experts, equipped with specialized training and cutting-edge equipment, venture into submerged environments that were once deemed inaccessible, and provide efficient, comprehensive and safe remediation through their remarkable precision.
Spent Fuel Pond Decommissioning Diver Tasks Include:
Efficient and Thorough Sludge Recovery
Large and Small Component Volume Reduction and Packaging
Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) Spent Fuel Skip Volume Reduction and Packaging Debris Sorting and Packaging
Furniture De-plant, Segmentation, and Packaging Operations and Radiation In-water Support
Stainless Steel Liner Removal, Segmentation, and Packaging
Nuclear Grade Underwater Coatings, Wall and Floor Concrete Stabilization
Their versatile skills, combined with repeatable diving processes and access to a variety of underwater construction tools, also allows them to access challenging areas including tight corners, troughs, and spaces behind and underneath steel structures. Often these spaces are difficult for remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), robotics, or long-handled remote tooling to reach.
Regulator Endorsed, Reducing Costs, Dose & Schedule Historically, the involvement of nuclear divers has led to decreases in project schedules, costs, and collective radiation exposure. This is achieved as there is no need to design, fabricate, test, and employ specialized, unconventional remote tools for spent fuel pond decommissioning when using divers. A recent project showed that nuclear divers performing spent fuel pool furniture removal, liner removal and concrete fixative application experienced .9 Rem and required 984 labor hours, versus an estimated 8.7 Rem and 9,300 labor hours if utilizing topside and robotic methods. Well-regulated within the commercial energy generation
industry, contaminated diving services are regularly carried out at Boiling Water Reactors (BWR), Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR), Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) Reactors, and Water-Water Energetic Reactors (VVER).
Successful Decommissioning Outcomes: Sellafield, Ltd. With the recent completion of its Pile Fuel Storage Pond (PFSP) diving pilot, Sellafield Ltd, in collaboration
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with Underwater Construction Corporation UK Ltd, UCC nuclear divers, continued its mission to deliver innovative approaches toward the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s mission to reduce the legacy pond’s environmental risk sooner and at less cost. Specifically, within the withdrawal and decanting bays, divers quickly completed underwater tasks such as debris, sludge, and encased steel removal. At Sizewell A, nuclear divers completed more than 700 entries into the spent fuel pond, reducing the drain-down schedule by 18 months. Divers removed, volume reduced, and packaged 130 tons of steel and 86 spent fuel skips. Nuclear diving at Sellafield has enhanced the vital clean- up work completed to date and can support continued legacy risk reduction efforts for the foreseeable future.
A Trusted Leader in the Nuclear Diving Industry “The safe use of nuclear divers can deliver significant savings in cost and schedules. With a trusted nuclear dive partner like UCC, facilities with contaminated water reservoirs will improve their return on investment,” said, UCC UK Ltd’s Philip MCDermott Currently, UCC is supporting decommissioning projects at San Onofre and Fort Calhoun in the US and Sellafield in the United Kingdom. Underwater Construction Corporation (UCC) has
supported the energy industry since 1969. With nuclear diving expertise in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and since 2015 in the United Kingdom through its wholly owned subsidiary UCC UK Ltd, our nuclear divers can accelerate the remediation of high-risk and hazardous waste within legacy pond facilities. ■
Philip McDermott is Chief Operating Officer, UCC UK Ltd.
Below: UCC Nuclear Underwater Welder.
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