Plastic piping for nuclear station

London -- British Energy is switching to polyethylene (PE) pipework as an alternative to coated steel for the cooling systems on its  Torness power station at Dunbar. The project follows a similar installation at the energy company's Heysham power station.

Process, mechanical & electrical engineering design consultancy GHA Livigunn of Frodsham, UK is currently finalising the design of a the PE Reactor Sea Water (RSW) cooling system for the Torness power stationon the east coast of Scotland. The contract on the cooling water pipelines for Reactor 1 followed GHA Livigunn’s creation of a similar system at the Heysham 2 power station. 

The RSW project for Heysham 2 followed an investigation by the site’s system health engineer, Mike Craddock, into alternatives to RSW cooling water transportation via traditional vylastic coated carbon steel - which has presented corrosion and lining failure issues as well as pipework bore reduction due to infestation of molluscs and other sea life.

From his research, Craddock determined that PE pipes offered a suitable replacement for both the suction and discharge pipework associated with the RSW system at Heysham 2.  Following testing, British Energy awarded the contract for the design, manufacture and installation of replacement pipework in the cooling water (CW) pump house and reactor basement of Reactor 7 RSW cooled turbine system to Boultings Mechanical and Livigunn.

The contract, said Livigunn, met all the design and material requirements, limited mollusc infestation and enabled British Energy to gain significantly extended RSW pipeline life, with a design expectation of 50 years.

Staff from Torness took an active interest in the work at Heysham 2, including site visits to share best practice and opted to switch to the use of PE for their RSW system replacement. The safety, cost and reliability benefits of the PE system is also attracting interest from other nuclear power sites, claims Livigunn.