Central Active Workshop

EWN GmbH’s disposal concept is based on the direct dismantling of the six reactor units in Greifswald and Rheinsberg which were shut down in 1995. The Central Active Workshop (CAW) is a further component of this concept in addition to the Interim Storage Facility North (ISN).

Due to the dismantled low and medium-level radioactive parts being mainly processed in the CAW and the ISN instead of the reactor buildings, a high degree of flexibility in the logistics and disposal strategy is achieved in course of dismantling the nuclear power plants.

As a processing station for solid radioactive waste and residual materials, the former repair workshop for contaminated plant parts from Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant has been equipped with specific conditioning technology. Work in the CAW has been carried out in accordance with this new role since 1997.

The aim of processing the materials which come directly from dismantling the nuclear power plants or from the interim storage facilities is:

To achieve clearance measurement of the materials (link to release measurement project) through disassembly and decontamination (removal of radioactive contamination),
To pack the materials appropriately for interim storage after dismantling,
To pack the accumulated waste in such a manner that it can be packed into final storage containers.

The resulting low and medium-level radioactive waste such as operating waste and waste from processing the plant components will be passed on to the KONRAD repository once this has been put into operation.

The Central Active Workshop has approval in accordance with the radiation protection ordinance for handling other radioactive substances. The approving authority is the competent regional government authority of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.

In addition to materials from the Greifswald and Rheinsberg nuclear power plants, the CAW can also treat materials from other nuclear power plants with light-water reactors to a limited extent.

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Current Works

The erection up of a further double cabin dry blasting facility is being prepared. With this, the CAW’s decontamination throughput can be significantly extended. Following factory approval, the plan is to put the facility into operation in spring.

Systems of the Central Active Workshop in Detail

Various facilities are available in the CAW for the dismantling and decontamination of disassembled plant components.
All dismantling processes serve to break down plant components to a manageable size for further processing and to reach the size required for subsequent planned clearance measurement.

A dismantling cabin is available for carrying out thermal separation and welding processes. Parts up to 6 m x 3 m in size and with a maximum mass of 5 t can be processed here.

Four band saws of various sizes are available. They can be used to process components or plant parts of up to 2.40 m x 2.40 m in size.

Hydraulic shears are used to cut up round bars or pipes with a diameter of up to 76 mm.

These machines can process cable of up to 90 mm in diameter. The outer, possibly contaminated sheathing is stripped off and the cable is then crushed. The cable and the insulating material are then disposed of separately.

In one cabin, parts are cleaned with water at pressures up to 3,000 bars. The water is used without any additives. The water only needs to be renewed once every three months due to the use of a mechanical filter. The contaminated water is then treated before reuse.

Currently, a total of five cabins are used for cleaning components in a dry blasting process with a blast pressure of 7 bars. The blasting media used is chilled iron granules. Approximately 70% of the granules are reused which reduces the amount of operating waste.

The wet chemical decontamination of components is carried out in 60 % phosphoric acid at a maximum temperature of 90 °C. It is mainly used for processing carbon steels. A total of four tanks are available for this.

Electrolytic decontamination in oxalic acid is carried out at current ratings of up to 2000 A. It is mainly used for processing stainless steels. Two tanks are available for this process.

Central Active Workshop

Current Works

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