15 Dec A section of DR 3's concrete removed

Two days before shutting down the company, a milestone was reached in the decommissioning of Danish Reactor 3: the first concrete blocks have been sawn out of the top of the reactor and placed in containers.

AA team of employees, with assistance from the Swedish company Extrem Borr & Sågteknik, meticulously sawed cuts into the upper part of the reactor block. The first vertical cut was made at the beginning of the year, and it proved to generate so much dust that work had to be paused while transparent dust enclosures were constructed for the remote-controlled saws. It also quickly became apparent that the old drawings of the reactor block's materials and construction could not necessarily be relied upon – a well-known challenge in the work of dismantling Risø's nuclear facilities. Consequently, both the plans and the equipment for cutting the outer parts had to be adjusted during the process.

A series of cuts has now been made into the outermost layer of the reactor block, comprising reinforced concrete, steel, and the steel profiles at the corners. Both vertical and horizontal cuts have been made into the facades, along with some final vertical cuts from the top to release the first of the sawn blocks. The work has been characterized by intermittent stoppages; both minor delays, such as when a new layer required a different blade, and more significant interruptions due to this year's COVID-19 restrictions.

On Monday, December 7th, the first twelve sawn blocks – three from each side – were lifted by crane into a pair of containers. Each block measures two meters in length and 40 x 40 cm otherwise, allowing six blocks to be carefully maneuvered into a single container.

The work of sawing more blocks from the top of the reactor will resume once DD's employees are permitted to return to the workplace. Concurrently, a new, large dust enclosure must be prepared for the sawing operations further towards the center, where a higher concentration of activated dust is anticipated. The entire reactor block is planned to be sawn into approximately 600 blocks, which will fill 100 containers.