NEWS Ӏ FEBRUARY 2024


INDUSTRY-FIRST LIFTS AT NUCLEAR DECOMMISSIONING SITE


Mammoet crews assisted a technology and services provider for decommissioning shutdown nuclear energy facilities, Orano USA, with the extraction of a sectioned 540-tonne nuclear reactor vessel (RV) at the shutdown Crystal River Unit 3 pressurised water reactor site in Florida, USA. The removal of the RV is part of the accelerated decommissioning of the facility which began generating electricity in 1977.


Orano developed and patented


a process it calls as ‘optimised segmentation’ which segments, extracts, and separates underwater the reactor vessel’s internal components into categories based on their radioactivity using the US Nuclear Regulatory


Commission's low-level waste classification system. The nuclear waste was repacked inside the emptied vertical reactor vessel to optimise the segmentation of the entire RV into three pieces for transportation and disposal.


Using a custom-installed strand jack


system spanning the inside of the reactor containment building Mammoet’s crew lifted the two heaviest RV segments out of the reactor well and then lowered them into a customised package on the ground level for transport to final disposal. This project marks the first time that this method was performed. Altogether Mammoet says it completed


the reactor vessel removal with a quicker, more cost-effective, and


more efficient solution using the strand jack’s greater lifting power and minimal required space to position the equipment inside an already congested containment area.


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