DECOMMISSIONING | MOVING MASS
Raising ambition on nuclear decomm
Working in the nuclear sector is highly specialised and demands the utmost expertise and skill, but also presents opportunities for cross-sectoral learnings. As the industry gets set for a major ramp up, experience is more important than ever
NUCLEAR ENERGY HAS A KEY role to play in ensuring we can continue to meet the world’s growing demand for electricity. In fact, the IEA predicts that nuclear power generation will see a 75% increase by 2050. Yet regions like Europe are expected to face significant
Mammoet COO Jan Kleijn
growing pains as the expansion of nuclear generation picks up pace. This will include not only the challenge of building new facilities, but also how to handle more widespread decommissioning and maintenance work. Many existing plants are ageing, built as long ago as the 1970s with a typical lifespan of around 40 to 50 years. These assets will need to be replaced in the coming decades for the continent to meet its energy transition goals. The growing need for decommissioning and maintenance should be met most efficiently and – above all – safely. A major challenge that will be increasingly faced by nuclear projects is the sheer variety of different facilities that were built from the 1970s onwards. This means that there is no one methodology that can be applied across all sites. This is not simply a case of construction and layout, but also the data available – it is quite common to have to work with a lack of detailed information on older plants built some 50 years ago or more. This means that more work is needed early in each project to ensure the logistic methodologies will work within the site.
This early involvement also gives suppliers the best
chance of developing bespoke equipment within the project timeframe. Problems can often be solved by addressing them laterally. It can be highly undesirable or simply impossible to move modules through the plant itself. Instead, alternative options should be considered such as cutting a hole in the roof of the containment building, lifting the vessel out using a crane or gantry, or creating a bespoke engineering solution that has not been used before.
Overcoming complex logistics A case in point comes from the Lingen Nuclear Power plant in Germany, where as part of a wider decommissioning project Mammoet removed two steam converters from the control area of the facility, under very tight space restrictions. During the execution phase, these needed to be moved
vertically and then tilted to a horizontal orientation, before being lifted from the building to waiting transportation below. Mammoet’s engineering team created a combined lifting and transport solution with strand jacks, designed specifically for this working environment. Due to the high radiation protection requirements
on site, the entire tooling, equipment and 100 tonnes of fabricated steelwork had to pass special radiation
Above: Removing a steam converter from the Lingen NPP in Germany 34 | May 2023 |
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