Barrnon wins major US contracts to clean up nuclear waste

An Eden-based engineering firm has been awarded several contracts by the United States government to help clean up nuclear waste.

Environmental solutions specialist Barrnon, based in Appleby, will lead a project to develop, test and deliver a series of new systems to be deployed at a nuclear decommissioning site in the United States.

The contracts are worth several million pounds, and if successful, could lead to a further package of contracts valued in the hundreds of millions.

The Hanford site in Washington state has been a federal nuclear waste decommissioning facility since the 1940s. The complex includes an underground storage facility, comprised of dozens of huge tanks containing decades-old submerged nuclear waste.

Barrnon will design and develop a series of innovative technological solutions to safely remove and process the thick layers of hard nuclear debris from the underground tanks.

These include a ‘dry waste retrieval system’ which will feature a robot equipped with multiple tools to pick up and remove the hard nuclear waste from inside the tanks.

They will also develop a unique lighting and scanning system which can access the tanks through small four-inch holes. This will enable the team to understand where the waste is located and how much there is.

“This is a major project for the company,” said Barrnon owner and managing director Andy Barr. “The systems we are designing will help protect the environment by enabling our client to safely remove and process tonnes of historical nuclear waste material.

“This could have a huge impact on how we think about handling and processing nuclear waste.

“The key to winning these contracts is our innovative approach to finding solutions. We have developed similar technology in the past for Sellafield, and this experience has helped us to understand how to adapt this for the site in America.”

This will be the first time Barrnon has led on a project of this scale and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

“If successful, the technology and systems we are developing could potentially safeguard the future of legacy nuclear waste facilities all over the world.

“I am extremely proud of the team here in Cumbria. We are creating industry-leading solutions to some of the biggest environmental challenges facing the planet.”