Waste Vitrification Plant Line 3 Decontamination

Following a significant contamination event within Waste Vitrification Plant Line 3, the SDS team was brought in to assess the situation and to develop a decontamination strategy. Acting as a rapid response to the issue as part of their Sellafield decontamination framework contract, the SDS team are the first point of call for such events. They have the required technical / specialist capabilities and previous experience to react quickly and efficiently to any contamination incident.

The SDS Specialists undertook a number of initial sampling and characterisation operations to determine the extent and levels of contamination in different areas of the plant. With this information and their technical knowledge and experience they were able to develop a systematic approach to decontaminate the different substrate’s and items within the facility. Producing an overall strategy which allowed the plant to be brought back to operational status as quickly and as safely as possible. This included a methodology for tracking & logging decontaminated areas for future clearance and plant restart approval.

While the SDS team were key to the development for the overall strategy for the decontamination of the facility they also took part in ‘hands on’ decontamination operations to assist in getting the plant back to operational status. In order to achieve this, they also undertook the training of Sellafield and contractor operatives in decontamination techniques and the use of decontamination equipment, speeding up the process.

KEY FACTS:

• A ‘first point of call’ during the incident, providing a rapid response that allowed the plant to be assessed and the decontamination strategy to be put in place as quickly as possible.

• SDS trained 70 operators in basic decontamination techniques including rope access teams, significantly reducing the time to get the plant back to operational status.