'Mega' concrete pour as Dounreay waste store project reaches new level
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Work on Dounreay’s newest radioactive waste store has reached a new level with the completion of what has been described as a "mega" concrete pour.
The construction project was one of the first at the site to restart in June following the easing of lockdown restrictions. A 60-strong team had to learn Covid-compliant ways of working, sometimes in close proximity with each other, to keep themselves and their colleagues safe.
Since then they have poured 1500 tonnes of concrete and the building walls have now risen to above the first-floor level.
Just before Christmas the team embarked on the biggest concrete pour of the project so far, working for nine hours to lay the floor slab in the crane maintenance bay (CMB) on the first floor of the building, with 27 lorries delivering 425 tonnes of concrete. An overnight shift completed the job.
Dounreay project manager Dave Busby said that casting the CMB floor slab was a significant construction milestone as it would allow the team to install the 170-tonne CMB shield door early in 2021.
He added: “The team has overcome considerable obstacles this year, being Covid-19 compliant as we continue to work through the pandemic.”
Dounreay awarded the contract to construct the new intermediate-level waste store to Graham Construction Ltd. Work began in 2018 and is expected to take around three years to complete.
It will hold drums of waste in safe long-term storage in accordance with Scottish Government policy.
The site decommissioning project is being delivered by Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd, a company owned by Cavendish Dounreay Partnership, on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
