Drain surveys supports nuclear power site decommissioning plan

Drainage engineers from Lanes Group plc have carried out a CCTV drainage survey across the site of a decommissioned nuclear power station.

The surveys were needed, as part of a planned maintenance programme, to confirm the condition of the surface water drainage system at the former Bradwell power station, in Essex.

A two-person drainage survey team from the Lanes St Neots depot, in Cambridgeshire, carried out the drainage investigation over five days at Magnox Bradwell.

Magnox is delivering the decommissioning programme at the site for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Bradwell power station began generating energy in 1962. In 2019, it became the first nuclear power station in the UK to be placed in long-term decommissioning management.

The Lanes CCTV drainage survey team used remote-controlled robotic cameras to record HD quality footage of the inside of the surface water drains across the site.

The condition, construction and configuration of the drainage pipes were identified and an accurate system map of all the pipework was created.

As part of its decommissioning work, Magnox tests all assets for radioactivity so it could be sure the site’s self-contained drainage system was safe to work on.

Matt Jinks, Area Development Manager for Lanes St Neots, said: “We were very pleased to be asked to carry out this survey for Magnox.

“Lanes has a great deal of experience in working on sensitive and secure sites like this, so we had all the systems and standards in place that Magnox needed to be assured of the quality of our work.”

A total of around 1,600 metres of drainage pipe ranging in diameter from 150mm to 600mm were surveyed.

The survey data and video footage was sent from the site via the cloud to Lanes’ national survey centre in Manchester to be processed by qualified technicians, and the reports compiled.

Magnox Bradwell is one of a number of nuclear sites Lanes has been commissioned to deliver drainage services for around the country.

The Lanes Southampton depot provides a range of sewer maintenance services for Magnox Winfrith, a former nuclear energy research site in Dorset. It provided electricity of the National Grid between 1967 and 1990.

The Lanes Preston depot has delivered drainage services at Heysham nuclear power station, in Lancashire, for EDF Energy.

In one of its latest projects, its teams used an innovative Picote electro-mechanical pipe cleaning machine to clear drains in one of its two reactor halls, solving a persistent pipe blockage problem.

Magnox Bradwell had two nuclear reactors with a design output of 300 megawatts. On a typical day it could supply enough electricity to meet the needs of a town with a population of 180,000.

All buildings on the site, except for water storage ponds and two reactor buildings, was completed in 2019. Demolition of the reactor buildings and final site clearance is planned for 2083 to 2093.