Westinghouse Electric said it has signed a contract with Barseback Kraft AB to provide support for the dismantling of the Barseback Nuclear Power Station in Sweden, which will be the first undertaking of its kind in the country.
The Barseback plant is comprised of two ABB-designed boiling water reactors in the south of Sweden, 18.6 miles from Malmo.
The first reactor at the plant, Barseback 1, closed Nov. 30, 1999. The second reactor, Barseback 2, was closed down May 31, 2005.
Westinghouse vice president and managing director for Northern Europe, Aziz Dag said the contract was “strategically important for Westinghouse.”
The work involves dismantling, breaking down and packaging the reactor vessel internals – the closest components to the reactor core – for safe disposal. These steps will significantly reduce the amount of radioactivity remaining at the plant since operation stopped and facilitate safe dismantling of the remainder components, Westinghouse said.
Westinghouse said it will implement remotely controlled underwater mechanical cutting techniques and employ specifically designed equipment the company will fabricate and test at its facilities in Västerås, Sweden.
The project will begin immediately. It is expected to take four years to complete with mechanical segmentation beginning in 2016.
Westinghouse has more than 30 years of project experience in pressurized water reactor and boiling water reactor power plant reactor pressure vessel internals (RPVI) segmentation and packaging, most recently winning the award for a Westinghouse-led consortium from EnBW Kernkraft GmbH (EnKK) for Philippsburg unit 1. Westinghouse has also been contracted for dismantling work at Électricité de France’s Chooz nuclear power plant in France, at Empresa Nacional de Residuos Radiactivos’ José Cabrera Nuclear Power Station (also known as Zorita) in Spain, and at EnKK’s Neckarwestheim unit 1, also operated by EnKK.