French waste management company Veolia announced Monday that its Nuclear Solutions branch has secured a contract to provide treatment systems for irradiated water at four U.K. nuclear power plants being dismantled by Magnox Ltd.
Veolia will design, construct, and deploy its Modular Active Effluent Treatment Plants (MAETPs) to remove radioactive material from effluent and pond water at the Chapelcross, Hinkley Point A, Oldbury, and Dungeness A sites, according to a Veolia press release. The water will then be discharged into the sea.
The initial two units are scheduled for delivery in 2018, the release says. Work is scheduled to wrap up in 2020.
“This agreement underscores Veolia Nuclear Solutions’ ability to provide an innovative and comprehensive range of technologies, expertise and best-in-class operational capabilities to clients around the world. By bringing to bear the technology and operational know-how from Fukushima, one of the most significant environmental challenges in recent memory, we support Magnox and allow for treated water to be discharged under industry best practices,” Veolia Nuclear Solutions CEO William Gallo said in prepared comments.
Gallo told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing that this is Nuclear Solutions’ first significant water processing contract in the United Kingdom. He declined to discuss the value of the contract.
Veolia said the technology employed in the United Kingdom will be similar to systems deployed by subsidiary Kurion — the California- based nuclear cleanup technologies specialist acquired last year that forms the core of Nuclear Solutions — at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the March 2011 meldown of three reactors following an earthquake and tsunami in Japan. That technology enabled the extraction of 99.9 percent of radioactivity in contaminated water at Fukushima, according to Veolia.
Veolia Nuclear Solutions hopes to secure additional contracts with Magnox, Gallo said. “But we’re very focused on delivering for the Magnox sites” under the current contract, he added.
