UK-Russia Closed Nuclear Cities Partnership

Develop a prototype water-jet cutting system, complete with all equipment needed for industrial demonstration purposes and its adaptation to nuclear submarine decommissioning.

Summary

The project involves work with the All Russian Scientific and Research Centre for Technical Physics (VNIITF) from the Closed Nuclear City of Snezhinsk. This project provides assistance to VNIITF in the development of a new technology that supports two important steps in the nuclear submarine decommissioning process - the removal of rubber cladding from the outer surface of the submarine, and cutting through the pressure vessel which makes up the submarine's hull. Both of these steps are currently slow and labour-intensive, and involve significant risk to the operators and the environment. There are dozens of nuclear submarines scheduled to be decommissioned pursuant to Russia's commitments under the START-1 treaty. However, the pace of decommissioning has been impeded due to the above mentioned constraints.

The proposed new technology involves the use of very high pressure water jetting, supplemented (in the case of hull cutting) with added abrasive powder. VNIITF has already demonstrated the technical feasibility of this approach in laboratory work funded by CNCP through the International Science and Technology Centre. CNCP will support the project's further technical development by funding the manufacturing of a set of equipment, to be supplied to the Zvezdochka shipyard, in order for the technology to be demonstrated under operational conditions. The same technology also has a wide range of other industrial applications, including the cleaning and cutting of pipelines for the oil & gas industry, the dismantling of hazardous munitions, the cutting and cleaning of railroad hardware, and the support of decontamination/decommissioning operations at nuclear facilities. CNCP has already funded a marketing study for this equipment and identified multiple clients for the product from a cross section of industries. The manufacturing of the initial sets, however, will be targeted for nuclear submarine decommissioning. The project has potential to be linked with the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) project, which would be another example of US-UK collaboration in the area of non-proliferation.

Cost

Total cost of the project is £227,000, including £30,000 for preliminary research and business planning. The DECC is funding a contribution of £227.000.