Decommissioning and nuclear waste management
Ansaldo Nucleare has a proven track record in nuclear decommissioning and waste management projects and is currently tackling some of the most complex challenges within the UK and European nuclear decommissioning programmes.
Nuclear facilities have a limited lifespan, which means the management of nuclear waste and the decommissioning and deconstruction of plants must be carefully planned and controlled. That’s why it’s vital to seek out a company that has the knowledge and experience to make sure everything is handled safely.
Ansaldo Nucleare has provided products and services for decommissioning programmes for over 60 years, combining remote management and waste treatment technologies with our expertise in nuclear deconstruction to offer better, safer solutions.
From decommissioning strategies to implementation
Whether it’s a case of designing a solution or building it, Ansaldo Nucleare has the capability to manage everything in-house. We’ve also gained extensive experience in the supervision of on-site operations, and can provide:
- Feasibility studies based on technical, economic and dose requirements
- Identification of optimal decommissioning strategies
- Dismantling design and on-site dismantling works
- Support to licensing
- Decommissioning equipment & tools for the dismantling, packaging and transfer of waste
- Organisation of site activities, including installation of waste management facilities (WMF)
- On-site operations, where the planning, monitoring and control of works is essential for the safe and efficient execution of the project
- Chemical decontamination systems for contaminated materials resulting from dismantling activities
Radioactive waste management
Ansaldo Nucleare is also capable of developing innovative solutions for the remote reduction, sorting, decontamination, measurement, handling and confinement of radioactive waste. Our solutions include:
- Liquid waste treatment plants
- Solid waste treatment plants
- Organic waste treatment plants
- Handling systems
- Instrumentation & control
- Containers for Low and Intermediate Level Waste (LILW)
- Radioactive waste storage facilities
- Design, supply, test and commissioning of radioactive waste management systems for the operation of light water reactor facilities
Our successes in decommissioning and nuclear waste management
Ansaldo Nucleare has delivered decommissioning solutions worldwide, across a wide range of nuclear plants and research sites. We specialise in developing innovative solutions to the most complex decommissioning challenges.
Using a bespoke decommissioning robot at Caorso (Italy)
Ansaldo Nucleare S.p.A. has delivered decommissioning solutions worldwide, across a wide range of nuclear plants and research sites. We specialise in developing innovative solutions to the most complex decommissioning challenges.
Reverse engineering the LECO facility at the Latina NPP (Italy)
Between 2008 and 2017, Ansaldo Nucleare designed, manufactured, installed and commissioned a system for transferring and conditioning radioactive sludge produced by the Latina NPP. Our solution was a pneumatic actuated pump, which extracted sludge along a 40 metre tunnel into the conditioning building, where the sludge would then be conditioned into a concrete matrix.
Making Sellafield safe with the Silo Emptying Plant (UK)
Ansaldo Nuclear Ltd started working on the design for the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS) silo emptying plant (SEP) in 1996. Perhaps the most innovative retrieval, waste size reduction and encapsulation mobile plant ever commissioned in the UK, the MSSS began retrieving waste from one of the most hazardous nuclear facilities on the Sellafield site in 2022. This programme of work will continue for up to twenty years.