An independent engineering firm is celebrating winning a double major nuclear contract. Cumbria-based Forth has secured two separate contracts to carry out work on behalf of governmental nuclear decommissioning company Magnox.

The team at Forth has successfully tendered to design, manufacture and provide waste retrieval solutions in Magnox wet vaults at Hinkley Point, and has also earned a separate contract to design and install active effluent pumping facilities at Magnox’s SGHWR and Dragon reactors in Winfrith.

Chris Downham, Forth’s operations manager, said: “Winning these contracts is a major deal for an SME like Forth, and we are delighted to have been selected for the work after a rigorous tendering process.

“Forth has proven over two decades that it can provide working solutions to industry problems across the world, and we will again showcase the capabilities of our fantastic team through this work with Magnox.

“We have demonstrated our expertise in coming up with answers to industry challenges, and we are excited to put the theory into practice and prevent persistent problems occurring.

“The work Magnox carries out is of global significance, and we’re thankful for the opportunity to assist with such groundbreaking projects.”

Linda Sapsford, Head of Procurement at Magnox, added: “We’re delighted to be collaborating with Forth as we safely decommission our sites at Hinkley and Winfrith. 

“One of our goals at Magnox is to add social value by creating employment and supply chain opportunities around our sites and across the UK, so it’s great to be working with an innovative home-grown company.”

The wet vault retrieval project has been split into two areas: one to concentrate on HAI waste management and the other focused on water management.

The HAI management work will see the team supply a number of skips in the wet vaults with unique lifting arrangements as well as chutes to help segregate waste in the vault. Further to this, the team will produce a specially designed fuel box which can be controlled with a remotely operated vehicle or a long reach tool.

Forth will also be provided lighting rigs and live camera feeds to improve the usability of all equipment. 

The water management element of the contract has been divided into three sub-projects:

• To design extra pre-filtration units to support the existing systems;
• To produce a water recirculation system as an additional means of pumping vault water;
• To design and create a turbidity abatement system to remove contaminated water from the sorting tray in a controlled and timely manner.

For the active affluent pumping facilities contract, Forth will create a process where active liquor can be transferred from the SGHWR and Dragon reactors in the Winfrith plant to 1,250-litre intermediate bulk containers and taken off site to be safely disposed of.

Chris said: “The work to be carried out is complex but our expert teams have come up with great concepts, and they will rise to the challenges posed through these contracts.”

Forth has worked with Magnox a number of times in the past 12 months which included devising a robotic arm to sift through debris in hazardous environments and the creation of a remotely operated machine which could also remove waste from hazardous environments on a larger scale.