Amec Wheeler Foster said Monday it has won a £7 million ($9 million) contract to design and build a new effluent treatment plant at Scotland’s shuttered Dounreay nuclear facility.
Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd. (DSRL), which is leading the decommissioning of the fast reactor research site in Caithness, awarded the contract. The treatment plant will serve as a link for processing and packaging waste from the Dounreay Shaft and Wet Silo. All liquid effluent from the new plant will be managed, processed, and discharged via pipeline to the site’s Low Level Liquid Effluent Treatment Plant, according to Monday’s announcement.
“This is an important project and adds to the work we are already engaged in with DSRL at Dounreay,” Vice President for Decommissioning at Amec Foster Wheeler Clean Energy Europe Andy White said in a statement. “The combination of our nuclear expertise and our experience as a contractor is instrumental in this work to support the clean-up of the site for future generations.”
Amec Wheeler Foster’s work will include: drawing up the concept and detailed design; producing safety and environmental data; manufacturing the modular process plant; off-site testing; delivery to Dounreay; and on-site installation.
“As a major employer in Caithness, we take our responsibility to support the future of our community seriously,” Dounreay Head of Commercial Stephen Adamson said in the statement. “We are particularly pleased to announce this partnership as it is the first contract to be awarded since Dounreay introduced a policy requiring our biggest suppliers to think about how they can help us deliver our socio-economic commitments.”
