REMEDIATION AT THE WESTERN STORAGE AREA
UKAEA HARWELL
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA)
have recently appointed CL Voelcker as part
of the team to carry out the remediation of the
Western Storage Area at their facility at Harwell.
The £5M contract involves the removal of
about 5,000 m3 of chemically contaminated waste,
and was bid jointly between Mowlem Remediation
and Environmental Services Group,
led by CL Voelcker with
TES Bretby, providing environmental monitoring
and analytical back up to the project.
The design of the works involves preparing a
Remediation Plan, which incorporates remediation
strategies, risk assessments, operational envelopes
and a Waste Management Plan. The Plan is such
as to be suitable for audit by the nuclear regulatory
authorities. Preparation of the design element
is complete and excavation and disposal of the
contaminated waste is in progress.
The chemically contaminated waste will require
extensive testing to ensure the correct sentencing
for disposal. A dedicated laboratory has been
established on site to carry out basic screening,
whilst broader suites and validation testing will
be carried out at TES Bretby. The waste will be
placed in over 20,000 drums to allow safe transport
and acceptable disposal. Waste that cannot readily
be disposed of at landfill will be sent for disposal
by incineration.
Extensive arrays of environmental monitoring
have been established to give early warning of
any release and to provide reassurance that workers
and site neighbours have not been exposed to any
hazard as a result of the remediation activities.
The arrays will be data-logged and alarmed to
provide continuous monitoring for exceedence of
pre-set alarm levels.
On completion of the excavation works, the pits
will be backfilled with inert materials and the
project will have achieved the objective of removing
a significant source of pollution.
Client: United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
Main Contractor: Mowlem plc
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