Wood Wins Waste Retrieval Contract from French Nuclear Agency

Wood has won a contract to recover and package low-level radioactive waste from a storage silo at a major nuclear site in France. The contract was won in partnership with AREVA Projets SAS.

The contract, from Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA), the French government’s atomic and alternative energy agency, covers project management, safety case, detailed design, commissioning and the first six months of operations.

Wood and AREVA Projets will work together to retrieve 50 tonnes of waste which have been stored at CEA Marcoule, 25km north-west of Avignon, for more than 50 years.

Wood will design a remotely operated robotic arm to remove the waste elements from the silo and also design a manufacturing unit to encapsulate them. Once treated, the waste package can then be made ready for long-term storage in a geological disposal facility. The work is expected to take five years.

Robin Watson, Wood chief executive, said: “This contract is an opportunity to grow our business in France by applying our ingenuity and expertise to solve nuclear problems for a growing range of customers.

“We look forward to working in collaboration with AREVA Projects in the safe and successful execution of this contract.”