Engineering design of the Windscale advanced gas-cooled reactor decommissioning machine and robotic manipulator

The paper reviews the background to the Decommissioning System and the stages through which it was developed before arriving at the final concept. Included is the steel materials radioactive inventory which gives radioactivity and weight of steel materials to be size reduced and handled by the System. A detailed description of the decommissioning machine and handling system is given. It describes how the problem of radiation shine where manipulator platform service lines pass through the floor shield was overcome by careful design. Key dates of important stages in the supply of the system are included. (author)