Cumbrian firm secures two Magnox contracts
08 November 2022
Cumbria-based engineering firm Forth has been awarded two contracts by UK governmental nuclear decommissioning company Magnox, the value of which has not been disclosed. Forth will supply waste retrieval solutions in Magnox wet vaults at Hinkley Point and also supply active effluent pumping facilities at Magnox's prototype steam generating heavy water reactor (SGHWR) and Dragon reactor at Winfrith.
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Forth's operations manager Chris Downham (Image: Forth)
The Hinkley Point wet vault retrieval project has been split into two areas: one to concentrate on health-associated infections (HAI) waste management and the other focused on water management.
The HAI management work will see Forth design, manufacture and provide a number of skips in the wet vaults with unique lifting arrangements as well as chutes to help segregate waste in the vault. In addition, the company will produce a specially designed fuel box which can be controlled with a remotely operated vehicle or a long-reach tool.
The water management element of the contract has been divided into three sub-projects: to design extra pre-filtration units to support the existing systems; to produce a water recirculation system as an additional means of pumping vault water; and to design and create a turbidity abatement system to remove contaminated water from the sorting tray in a controlled and timely manner.
For the Winfrith active affluent pumping facilities contract, Forth will design and install a process where active liquor can be transferred from the SGHWR and Dragon reactors to 1250-litre intermediate bulk containers and taken off site to be safely disposed of.
"Winning these contracts is a major deal for an SME like Forth, and we are delighted to have been selected for the work after a rigorous tendering process," said Chris Downham, Forth's operations manager. "Forth has proven over two decades that it can provide working solutions to industry problems across the world, and we will again showcase the capabilities of our fantastic team through this work with Magnox."
"We're delighted to be collaborating with Forth as we safely decommission our sites at Hinkley and Winfrith," said Linda Sapsford, Head of Procurement at Magnox. "One of our goals at Magnox is to add social value by creating employment and supply chain opportunities around our sites and across the UK, so it's great to be working with an innovative home-grown company."
Forth has worked with Magnox a number of times over the past year, including devising a robotic arm to sift through debris in hazardous environments and the creation of a remotely operated machine which could also remove waste from hazardous environments on a larger scale.
Researched and written by World Nuclear News