Successful dismantling of sodium installations

In the 1970's, researchers at the Belgian Nuclear research Center SCK •CEN designed a number of experimental loops for testing the behaviour of sodium as the coolant for fast reactors. These installations were shut down for good after ten years and have been preserved ever since under an inert atmosphere, until that is, the Decontamination and Clean-up Processes unit was given the task of dismantling them. This was a step into the unknown with a potentially dangerous chemical element. The article describes work undertaken with respect to the dismantling of all infrastructure used for experiments with sodium.