Nuclear Power Plants

Selective Demolition for Nuclear Plant Outages and Shutdowns

Many nuclear contractors and utility managers trust Cutting Technologies (CTI) for precise, schedule-driven selective demolition services delivered by a team of fully-qualified, safety-conscious professionals. CTI’s nuclear industry experience includes dozens of:

• steam generator replacement outages (SGR outage),
• routine maintenance outages,
• nuclear decontamination and decommissioning projects (nuclear D&D),
• reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and head replacement outages, and
• control rod drive mechanism projects (CRDMs),

Surgical Removal of Mass Concrete & Steel

Advanced skills and problem-solving abilities are required to breach the solid construction of a nuclear plant. With our CTI Advanced Engineering Solutions™, we develop sophisticated, yet practical, plans capable of overcoming such formidable structures. These plans are then executed by technicians who have advanced wire sawing, core drilling and robotic hammering skill. This, combined with their experience working on both sides of containment, enables our staff to make penetrations in heavily reinforced concrete and metal nuclear structures with great speed and precision.

Common applications of our nuclear demolition expertise include creating and enlarging equipment hatch openings, cutting reactor nozzles, and modifying sumps, crane walls and other structural components of nuclear reactors and auxiliary facilities.

Mission-Critical Objectives Delivered On Time, Every Time

Your tightly scheduled shutdown demands military-like discipline for fast and safe selective demolition service. That is why CTI’s proven FASTrack Process™ provides a highly-organized and schedule-driven workforce, ensuring we reach your critical path milestones on schedule and within budget.

Nuke-Qualified and Safety-Proven

CTI has a large, fulltime staff of ALARA-trained, fully-qualified rad workers listed in the NRC’s Personnel Access Data System (PADS), granting them unescorted access to your nuclear power plant. More importantly, CTI’s comprehensive in-house safety program, Safety Matters™, is the basis for a long-established record of safe performance on a variety of high-risk jobsites. It is the underlying force that drives our staff to be continually attentive to safety and responsible jobsite conduct.

Featured Projects

– Ft. Calhoun Nuclear Station, performed for Bechtel

CTI created hatch for removal of reactor head, steam generators and pressurizer vessel using wall sawing and robotic hammering for this record-breaking “Big Outage”. Read more about this nuclear selective demolition project.

– Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, performed for Stone & Webster

CTI diamond wire saw cut RPV nozzles for removal, and saw cut, rigged and removed missile shield, equipment hatch, crane wall, pressurizer cubical wall, steam generator walls and containment building walls to remove steam generators and reactor for decommissioning.

– St. Lucie Nuclear Plant, performed for SGT

CTI diamond wire sawed a 30′-diameter equipment hatch through the 3′-thick, heavily reinforced concrete wall of the containment building for the replacement of the reactor head and steam generator. Read more about this SGR outage.

– Vermont Yankee Nuclear Generating Station, performed for Framatome

CTI used diamond wire sawing to cut stainless steel pipes and spent fuel pool brackets for retrofitting and modification efforts.

– Indian Point Energy Center, performed for Entergy

CTI diamond wire sawed VC and IR sump walls to increase their capacity. Although the work was performed in a containment area with an extremely high level of radiological contamination, all work was safely completed with strict adherence to ALARA guidelines and without any significant exposure.

– Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, performed for Bechtel

CTI diamond wire sawed the heavily reinforced cavity and D-ring walls to remove and replace a steam generator, and core drilled holes to relocate a valve for repairs and modification.

– Rocky Flats Plant, performed for Kaiser Hill

CTI diamond core drilled 36″ diameter holes 25′ deep to remove radiologically contaminated equipment that had been sealed under concrete 30 years earlier as part of a hasty remediation attempt.

– Selective Demolition of Heavily Reinforced Concrete and Metal

CTI can quickly make precise penetrations through extremely thick, heavily reinforced concrete and metal structures, such as your plant’s containment wall, sump, spent fuel pool, transfer canal, and all other types of containment, reactor building, cooling tower, turbine hall and doghouse structures.

– Steel Cutting with Diamond Wire Sawing

CTI’s diamond wire cutting technologies can provide cost-effective segmentation of heavy equipment and steel structures for their fast removal during decommissioning and modification projects. Rely on CTI to sever your reactor nozzles, carbon steel containment liner, control rod drive mechanism (CRDM), condenser tube bundle, heat exchanger, pump, turbine, motor, generator, and fan units, as well as all metal base plates, pedestals, and mounting piers.

Contact CTI today at 856-456-2255 to learn how we can help with your nuclear selective demolition project.