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Dounreay boost
00:00 05 Aug 1998
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by Patrick Reynolds
About £7 million of extra site investigation work is planned at Dounreay power station to help plan a £355 million nuclear waste clean-up project, according to a report from independent advisors to Government last week.
A spokeswoman for the operator of Dounreay, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, said that tenders would be issued in the next few months for the additional site investigation work. Other tender documents will be issued later for the main project to remove and stabilise nuclear waste dumped for years in an old construction shaft at Dounreay.
The report from the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC) says that it expects to help plan the site investigation work with UKAEA. RWMAC's report adds that groundwater is continually flowing into the waste shaft and the £7 million study will probe the rock's hydrogeological and geo-technical characteristics to help design the clean-up scheme.
UKAEA's waste shaft at the coastal site was originally a construction access shaft to remove spoil from a 600m long tunnel. The shaft was isolated with a concrete plug and in 1959 was licensed as a disposal facility for intermediate level nuclear waste. But there are questions about the record-keeping of waste in the shaft, which suffered a gas explosion in 1977.
Radioactive particles have been found around the coastline near the UKAEA site. RWMAC now believes these have been caused by either by the waste shaft or from the polluted seabed, or both. Nearly 200 radioactive particles have been found since 1984, says the report.
The new site investigation work is expected to last three to five years. The cost of the studies was expected to be £4.5 million in March, according to an answer in Parliament. Concern over the groundwater flows in the shaft has increased since the RWMAC's report in 1995.
UKAEA's clean-up project is expected to cost up to £355 million and take 25 years, according to the spokeswoman. Robotic manipulators will remove the waste for storage in a new facility, and the shaft is to be sealed off and isolated. Previous studies dropped options to contain the waste in-situ with either a secant piled wall or grouting the rockmass.
About £7 million of extra site investigation work is planned at Dounreay power station to help plan a £355 million nuclear waste clean-up project, according to a report from independent advisors to Government last week.
A spokeswoman for the operator of Dounreay, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, said that tenders would be issued in the next few months for the additional site investigation work. Other tender documents will be issued later for the main project to remove and stabilise nuclear waste dumped for years in an old construction shaft at Dounreay.
The report from the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC) says that it expects to help plan the site investigation work with UKAEA. RWMAC's report adds that groundwater is continually flowing into the waste shaft and the £7 million study will probe the rock's hydrogeological and geo-technical characteristics to help design the clean-up scheme.
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UKAEA's waste shaft at the coastal site was originally a construction access shaft to remove spoil from a 600m long tunnel. The shaft was isolated with a concrete plug and in 1959 was licensed as a disposal facility for intermediate level nuclear waste. But there are questions about the record-keeping of waste in the shaft, which suffered a gas explosion in 1977.
Radioactive particles have been found around the coastline near the UKAEA site. RWMAC now believes these have been caused by either by the waste shaft or from the polluted seabed, or both. Nearly 200 radioactive particles have been found since 1984, says the report.
The new site investigation work is expected to last three to five years. The cost of the studies was expected to be £4.5 million in March, according to an answer in Parliament. Concern over the groundwater flows in the shaft has increased since the RWMAC's report in 1995.
UKAEA's clean-up project is expected to cost up to £355 million and take 25 years, according to the spokeswoman. Robotic manipulators will remove the waste for storage in a new facility, and the shaft is to be sealed off and isolated. Previous studies dropped options to contain the waste in-situ with either a secant piled wall or grouting the rockmass.
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