A new nucleus for equipment testing

In early 2019, JFN acquired a large-scale industrial facility at Bower in Caithness (Scotland), to be used to develop a dedicated testing and trials unit, which will enable the testing, development and integration of equipment for large scale projects in a safe (inactive) environment, before being deployed into the active on-site environment.  

This facility is now being put to work in support of the trials and testing of equipment which will be used for the decommissioning of the Magnox SGHWR reactor core at Winfrith in Dorset. This is the first of the Magnox commercial reactors to be decommissioned. 

The Bower test facility increases JFN’s capacity to carry out large scale trials and testing operations. It is situated conveniently close to Dounreay, the former UK fast reactor nuclear research site in Caithness. This means it will also be used to provide local accommodation for the NDL (Nuclear Decommissioning Ltd) joint venture company which currently holds one of the five decommissioning framework contracts for the Dounreay site. JFN is one of the four parent bodies of NDL, alongside Shelpey Engineering, WYG and React Engineering.  

The Bower team is currently assembling a large-scale test rig in the 60m by 34m rig hall in support of the SGHWR project. Over the next 12 months, extensive remote handling and size reduction trials and testing will be conducted on a mock-up of key components of the Magnox reactor, to ensure all the decommissioning equipment is fully tested and proven before it is deployed south to the SGHWR site in 2022.  

JFN’s, project director Stef Lucas says: 

‘Bower is ideally suited for a project of this size. It means JFN can comprehensively test the equipment and operations in a safe environment prior to deployment to the nuclear licensed site at Winfrith. We recognise that safety is more than just security these days and this also applies to health. To make sure we are Covid secure in our operations at Bower we are installing accommodation and taking extra steps to make the facility a fully self-contained work bubble.’