Case Study 1: Decontamination of Cartridge Cooling Ponds, Magnox Reactor, United Kingdom. Annex III

The first generation Magnox reactor fleet comprised a unique set of power reactors designed and commissioned in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1970s. The reactors were all different in their design but had unique commonality in the cooling of the irradiated fuel elements. Irradiated fuel was recovered from the reactors and placed underwater in a pond located adjacent to the reactor buildings, to allow the dissipation of heat before the material was deemed safe for transfer to Sellafield for reprocessing. Irradiated fuel was typically stored in the cooling ponds for a maximum of six months, after which time it would begin to degrade, making retrieval much more difficult. All Magnox reactors have now reached the end of their operational life and the majority of the Magnox reactors have been defuelled and are in an advanced stage of post-operational clean-out and decommissioning. They provide a useful case study to evaluate how different decontamination techniques can be applied to similar situations to achieve common goals.