Sodium secrets revealed
26 February 2009
This ghostly scene shows the highly radioactive sodium residues that built up on insulation plates within the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) at Dounreay, Scotland.
Images like this one will help engineers plan to dismantle the 31 stainless steel insulation plates in the upper portion of the reactor. The images were taken using a 6 mm endoscope camera encased within a stainless steel tube which also incorporated a drilling function. The tool was inserted over two metres into the shut-down advanced reactor.
Staff at Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd designed and tested the tool in-house. The company is responsible for the closure program at Dounreay, the UK's former centre of fast reactor research, which should see the site transformed and virtually clear by 2025.
The PFR generated 254 MWe from 1976 until 1994. It was built as the prototype for a new generation of UK advanced reactors but did not perform to expectations.