Cavendish to supply Hinkley Point A waste facility

The contract - worth about GBP10 million (USD14 million) - covers detail design, manufacture, installation and inactive commissioning and is scheduled for completion over a three-and-a-half-year programme. Cavendish Nuclear will also act as Principal Contractor under the Construction Design and Management Regulations (2015).

The CBLF project forms part of the Hinkley Point A Solid ILW sub-programme, which will provide Magnox with the capability to safely retrieve, sort, process and load waste into their designated disposal containers for storage at the site's Interim Storage Facility.

The CBLF will process and package a variety of waste streams into 6-cubic-metre concrete boxes and export these for encapsulation at the Modular Intermediate Level Waste Encapsulation Plant.

"The concrete box loading facility is integral to the waste processing capability at Hinkley," said Magnox Chief Operating Officer Paul Winkle. "It forms part of a bigger system of waste retrievals, processing and packaging facilities that must all dovetail together to ensure delivery of our programme to reduce the overall hazard on site."

Cavendish Nuclear's Business Unit Director Gary Ward said: "This is another great project where Cavendish Nuclear will support Magnox at Hinkley Point A on their mission to safely process ILW held at the site. On CBLF we are able to bring the skills and experience gained from successful project delivery for Magnox at their Berkeley site."

Cavendish Nuclear is already delivering projects at Hinkley Point A for the Pre-Conditioning Facility and the Dry Vault Fuel Element Debris Retrievals.

The Hinkley Point A plant in Somerset, England, comprises two Magnox gas-cooled reactors. Construction of the plant began in November 1957, with the first reactor entering commercial operation in March 1965 and the second following in May the same year. Both reactors were permanently shut down on 23 May 2000.

The Hinkley Point site is also home to the Hinkley Point B plant, comprising two advanced gas-cooled reactors which began operating in 1976 and are scheduled to shut down by mid-July next year. Two EPR reactors are currently under construction as Hinkley Point C, which are due to start up in 2026 and 2027.