Italy’s Sogin has completed the demolition of the screens of the steam generators of the reactor building at the closed Latina nuclear power plant. This concludes a significant step for the decommissioning of the plant which is now undergoing dismantling of the reactor building.
The screens were the six reinforced concrete structures that insulated the upper connecting pipes between the boilers and the reactor building from the outside. Each screen was made up of two parts: an upper horizontal element , connected to the reactor building, of about 145 tons and a lower vertical element, coming out of the boilers, of about 50 tons.
For their removal, Sogin adopted the technique of controlled demolition with cutting at a height of about 50 meters, using a diamond blade. Once sectioned, each block, weighing around 2 tons, was moved on the ground with a specially installed tower crane. Subsequently, the blocks were transferred to an equipped area to separate the iron from the concrete.
This engineering solution ensured maximum safety in carrying out the work and minimum impact on the structures, Sogin said. The works produced a total of about 1200 tons of material, which, after the appropriate radiometric checks, will be removed from the site and sent for recovery.
Overall, the dismantling of the Latina plant will produce approximately 319,000 tons of materials. Of these, approximately 297,000 tons (93%) will be sent for recovery, mostly composed of metals and concrete.
