Ukaea, Harwell

The project involved filling a sump and 3-4 metres of redundant 4” clay pipe that contained residual contamination from historic operations. Following several visits to the site and specific workshop trials – and based on previous experience of similar jobs for UKAEA – Steve Vick International successfully completed the sealing off operation using the Foam Bag™ system, in half a day.

Four semi-porous Foam bags were placed at strategic points in the pipe to be sealed.
A specially formulated foam was then pumped through tubes from a remote machine which mixes and pumps the foam, allowing Steve Vick International operators to work in an area free from radiological constraints.

The foam expands to fill the bags and seeps out to fill the section of pipe, curing to form a complete seal.

Phil Rayner of Harwell Projects Department who witnessed the onsite filling operations, said, “The pipe and sump were both successfully removed following Steve Vick International’s work and the hole backfilled. We were very pleased with the job.

Date Published – 28th October 2011