Environmental Services

During preparation and before starting Decommissioning & Dismantling (D&D), a company must consider the plant’s original design, modifications and specific conditions of operation and history.

It is also very important to have an early understanding of the specific regulatory requirements and to include those in a licensing plan that is sanctioned by the nuclear regulatory authorities.

Westinghouse’s extensive network in Canada, Europe and the United States of America provides a strong knowledge base of local D&D licensing requirements for nuclear power plants, nuclear research reactors and non-reactor nuclear facilities.

Westinghouse has been servicing the CANDU® market for more than 40 years and is uniquely positioned to plan and execute the successful D&D of CANDU® reactors in both Canada and internationally by leveraging detailed plant design and operation history.

Westinghouse is a full-scope supplier that delivers on its promise of working with and supporting customers during all project phases. We provide our customers with both expertise and experience based on our integral approach, and we support all the phases of a project, from concept and licensing to implementation and work supervision

All Westinghouse technologies and systems are designed to meet International Atomic Energy Agency regulations and guidelines, as well as specific legal or environmental requirements of our customers' respective countries including the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

Westinghouse will leverage global expertise and know-how to support the CANDU® fleet with short, mid and long-term spent fuel services. Canada’s spent fuel is currently managed in facilities licensed for interim storage with permanent, long-term solutions underway for final spent fuel storage.

Westinghouse can provide utilities with all necessary services necessary to transfer commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from spent fuel pools to a dry cask storage system. These services can include complete turnkey responsibility for a canister loading/transfer campaign, to niche services such as fuel-handling operations and canister-closure welding. This allows the utility to lower costs by offsetting increased short-term manpower and training costs for performing canister loading in house. Westinghouse has well-established capabilities for the handling, transportation and storage of used fuel for a variety of reactor types including CANDU®, PWR and BWR.

Our spent fuel services include:

• Testing, modification, repair and commissioning of used CANDU® fuel transportation packages
• Review of fuel dry storage container manufacturing and prototype construction
• Design and fabrication of used fuel dry story container lid clamp mechanisms for underwater loading and transport of containers prior to permanent lid welding
• Conceptual and feasibility studies in support of fuel handling and transportation from reactor sites to permanent storage facilities in addition to safety assessments and regulatory support

Spent Fuel Interim Storage

Westinghouse has extensive experience in all fields required to properly handle spent fuel, including fuel design, fuel handling, waste management and plant design. We have the capabilities necessary to cover all processes involved in spent nuclear fuel handling, nuclear waste treatment, engineering and management. Westinghouse has comprehensive experience in the development, design and construction of facilities and equipment for spent fuel handling and intermediate wet or dry storage.

Westinghouse provides many advantages through more than 30 years of project experience in CANDU®-like technologies as well as PWR, BWR, GCR and sodium-cooled nuclear power plant reactor vessel internals segmentation and packaging.

This experience and OPEX can be leveraged for CANDU® dismantling applications including reactor vessel internals segmentation and packaging as well as associated support services such as radiological shielding calculations, transportation container design and procurement, training and project management.

Westinghouse has a strong group of experts to support a dismantling project through the following areas:

• Layout and technical design of remote-controlled handling, lifting and cutting devices
• Segmentation and packaging plans
• Assembly, start-up, training and operation of integrated dismantling facilities
• Segmentation work on-site
• Calculation and layout of radiological shielding
• Support and management of dismantling and decommissioning licensing processes
• Transportation container design and procurement
• Overall project management for large projects
• Heavy lifting & rigging
• Health physics

Waste management has been a key aspect of Westinghouse Canada's portfolio of service offerings for 40 years. These custom nuclear services including, waste characterization, retrieval, handling, treatment, containment, transport and storage, have been provided to nuclear labs and reactor sites across North America. Westinghouse can perform a detailed assessment and provide an inventory and radiological assessment to ensure compliance with waste acceptance criteria.

Westinghouse’s waste management experience combines conceptual design, engineering, technology development, detailed design, procurement, manufacturing and delivery, installation, testing, commissioning, training, documentation, licensing and operation of waste treatment systems for dry active wastes, liquids, sludge, concentrates, spent resins or other types of radioactive waste. Our engineering solutions reduce disposal costs and provide a higher level of safety.

Westinghouse implements a sustainable approach to managing radioactive waste and nuclear by-products. This approach follows the 3R’s principle; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - which reduces waste inventory and turns these by-products into valuable assets.

Specific Technologies Developed Include:

• Chemical decontamination
• Liquid Waste Treatment
• Solid Waste Retrieval
• Resin Transfer
• Drying
• Solidification
• Solid Waste Processing
• Filtration & Straining
• Flasks & Casks
• Filter Handling & Transport
• Drum Handling
• Tritium/D2O

Waste Treatment Technologies and Systems

Westinghouse has developed, delivered and operated cost-effective waste treatment technologies and systems for the treatment of radioactive waste for more than 25 years. Our technologies have been applied to nuclear facilities for the entire nuclear life cycle including new plant construction, plant upgrade, life extension, and decommissioning.

Solutions include:

• Resin drying system
• 2000-t-super-compactor at nuclear fuel complex
• Concentrate drying station

Waste Packaging

For inspection and documentation purposes, all waste packages must meet all acceptance criteria prior to disposal. Westinghouse has a long history of developing, delivering and using technologies and systems to qualify and analyze radioactive waste packages. The range of products Westinghouse offers includes fully automatic, segmented gamma scanning, X-ray scanning and equipment for gas sampling from waste packages.

Waste Disposal Facilities

Westinghouse holds a strong position within the waste disposal category. The El Cabril facility in Spain, designed and constructed by Westinghouse, is considered one of the best among industry standards for disposal of very low-level waste and low- and intermediate-level waste. Westinghouse continues to provide engineering and waste characterization support to the operation of this facility. This successful project has led to many initiatives in Korea, Romania, Slovakia, and Bulgaria. In the spent fuel disposal area, Westinghouse has design experience in dry and wet intermediate storage.

Remediation planning is a critical event at a nuclear plant's end of life.

The International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) “Integrated Approach to Planning the Remediation of Sites Undergoing Decommissioning," (IAEA NW-T-3.3) report outlines a broad spectrum of considerations associated with this activity. Westinghouse has a range of remediation experience with plant sites, facilities and uranium mines and mills both privately and nationally owned.

The Westinghouse approach begins with a detailed action plan that is designed to resolve many fundamental issues. Our custom action plans integrate all necessary knowledge, including regulatory criteria, site characteristics, types of waste, and public and policy management.

Our engineered solutions reduce remediation costs while providing a high level of safety and addressing the following project aspects that are critical to success:

• Developing master plans that leverage strategic planning tools for optimization
• Preparing risk assessment, contingency planning and feasibility
• Understanding state, local and federal interactions for relations, codes and compliance
• Managing capital planning and finance
• Providing project management for removal / remediation

With more than 50 years of global experience in supplying proven, high-quality nuclear services, Westinghouse offers customers the benefit of our expertise, based on an integrated approach to decommissioning and remediation. In Canada, our established relationships with local resource providers and understanding of local, provincial and federal government bodies in the market enables our team to successfully execute remediation work.