Our SIXEP Continuity Plant (SCP) project team has achieved its latest significant delivery milestone, completing the manufacture of 14 bespoke pump and valve modules.
Just as important as the building structure itself, is its inner workings. With the help of a vast supply chain, the project is making progress manufacturing a complex arrangement of tanks, vessels, pumps, valves and pipework. Once the facility is commissioned, these vital components will all work together to treat effluent streams from legacy facilities across the site.
This latest milestone coincides with the 40th anniversary of Sellafield’s existing Site Ion Exchange Effluent Plant (SIXEP). SIXEP, which has been operational since 1985, is one of the site’s key effluent treatment plants because of the role it plays in treating liquids from some of the site’s oldest assets, including the First-Generation Magnox Storage Pond and the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo.
The plant acts as the ‘kidneys’ of the Sellafield site, filtering out nuclear material before the liquid is safely discharged to sea. The new-build plant, SCP, is on course to be operational in 2029 and will ensure SIXEP can continue its vital work for decades to come, in support of the site’s decommissioning.
Simon Wilcock, SCP’s project director, said:
“I am immensely proud of the team for reaching our third major milestone. The successful on-time completion of the specialist pumps, remotely maintainable valves and modules, is a huge step for SCP, removing a significant risk to the project.
“This achievement is a great example of the supply chain working collaboratively, with the focus on being successful together, to deliver a high-quality product that will form the heart of the effluent treatment process, and supporting high-hazard reduction for years to come.”
The supply chain behind the milestone includes German-based AZ Armaturen who manufactured the valves, Hayward Tyler and Stainless Metalcraft who manufactured the pumps, and West Cumberland Engineering Ltd who completed the final module manufacturing, intricate connecting pipework and welds.
Watch the video here to hear more about the work of West Cumberland Engineering Ltd.