Costain has recently completed construction of a pipeline that will allow the decommissioning of one of the UKâs disused nuclear power stations to proceed. Client trials of the new Active Effluent Discharge Line (AEDL) are nearing completion at the Magnox Wylfa nuclear power plant on the island of Anglesey. The trials follow two contracts carried out by Costain, one for the AEDLâs design phase, completed last year and a second for its implementation, which started at the beginning of 2016. The implementation phase contract is a small project, said Delivery Director, Lee McLaughlin, âbut absolutely critical to the future decommissioning of the site, so it has large value to the client.â?
During the operational life of the power station, small amounts of low level effluent were diluted by the continuous flow of reactor cooling water system and dispersed to sea. Following the switch-off it was no longer desirable to run the main cooling water pumps at the site, so an alternative method of dissipating the effluent was required. This involved installing new stainless steel and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) co-axial pipes to transport the active effluent from within the site, under the foreshore and out under the seabed to the required termination point in deep water in the Irish Sea. The next two years will be spent de-fuelling the reactor before further decommissioning procedures get under way.