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The Design, Construction and Operation of NORM Descaling Plants

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Title: The Design, Construction and Operation of NORM Descaling Plants


1
The Design, Construction and Operation of NORM
Descaling Plants
  • E Taylor and L Fellingham

2
Structure of the Presentation
  • Background to the Problem of NORM Contamination
  • Potential Solutions
  • De-scaling Techniques
  • Design of Plants
  • Examples of Operational Plant
  • Safety Assessment
  • Waste Management
  • Concepts for Next Generation Plant
  • Conclusions

3
Nature of the Problem
  • Around the world there are significant arisings
    of NORM-contaminated plant being generated by the
    oil gas industry
  • Much of this is stored in open yards
  • There is a potential contamination threat to
    workers and a long-term environmental liability

4
NORM-contaminated Equipment
5
Required Solution
  • Manage NORM wastes in accordance with best
    international practice
  • Reduce the volume of NORM-contaminated waste
    arisings
  • Concentrate the radioactivity into the minimum
    practical volume
  • Store the concentrated activity safely
  • Reuse or recycle as much of the contaminated
    equipment, etc, as possible.

6
RWE NUKEMs Experience of providing Solutions
  • Design, construction and initial operation of the
    Al-Furat Petroleum Company (AFPC) facility in
    Syria
  • Design, construction and operation of the NORM
    facility at the Dounreay site serving the North
    Sea oilfields (now closed)
  • Design, construction and operation of a modular
    facility at the Winfrith site to meet the
    requirements of the Wytch Farm oilfield operated
    by BP

7
The Facilities
8
Techniques evaluated for removing Scale and
Sludge from contaminated Equipment
  • Proprietary and developmental stage, chemical
    descaling methods
  • Various forms of particle blasting using sand,
    ballotini, metal shot, solid CO2, etc
  • Abrasion techniques using wire and other forms of
    brushes and
  • High pressure jetting techniques, using water and
    other process fluids.

9
High Pressure Water Jetting The Optimum Choice
for Descaling
  • It is very efficient at scale removal,
    irrespective of the chemical and mineral form of
    the scale
  • The water is capable of penetrating into narrow
    crevices, cracks, corrosion pits, etc, and
    removing scale and other adhering deposits.
    Hence residual contamination levels are very low
    and high decontamination factors are achieved
  • The speed of processing is higher than with any
    alternatives, so reducing the necessary size of
    any plant
  • It does minimal damage to the metal surface of
    the components, etc, being descaled
  • The process makes use of the very low solubility
    of the scale and particularly the radium salts.
    The scale and radioactive contaminants are not
    solubilised. Hence the process water treatment
    is very simple involving only filtration and no
    chemical treatment

10
High Pressure Water Jetting The Optimum Choice
for Descaling (2)
  • The process water is recycled after filtration,
    so enabling the minimum volume of water to be
    used and generating no or a minimal volume of
    liquid effluent
  • The scale can be encapsulated or re-injected with
    the minimum of treatment.
  • It is compatible with hydraulic cements, making
    it ideal for encapsulation directly or after
    maceration.
  • It can be disposed of after maceration and
    slurrying by reinjection into appropriate
    geological formations, including those exhausted
    of oil and gas.
  • Left in the chemical form in which it was
    originally deposited, the very low solubility of
    the scale in aqueous environments makes it an
    ideal waste form for long-term storage and
    disposal in both near surface and geological
    formations.

11
Deployment of High Pressure Water Jetting
12
Safety Assessment of NORM Descaling Facilities
  • Calculation of radiological doses due to routine
    decontamination operations for operators of the
    plant and an assessment for the general public.
  • Determination of the radiological risk to both
    operators and the public from potential accidents
    arising from fault conditions.
  • A bounding credible accident scenario, which
    would demonstrate that worst case scenarios
    result in negligible dose uptake by members of
    the workforce and general public in the
    surrounding areas.
  • A review of industrial hazards

13
Main Hazards assessed in Safety Assessment
14
Typical Results of Radiological Safety Assessments
15
Design Concept for Plants
  • A high proportion of the equipment to be descaled
    is in the form of tubulars with a much smaller
    proportion in the form of valves, Christmas
    trees, heaters, treaters, separators, pumps,
    meters, dehydrators, salt water tanks, etc.
  • The tubulars are uniform geometry items,
    differing only in length and diameter.
  • The other equipment comes in a very diverse range
    of shapes and sizes, making process automation
    much more difficult without complex equipment.
  • Treat these as two distinct streams. In order to
    achieve high throughputs and to process the much
    higher quantities, use a semi-automated approach
    for tubular de-scaling where possible.
  • Use manual descaling with dismantlement and
    potentially cutting to expose internal surfaces
    for other equipment.

16
Examples of Plant Design
  • NORM facility at Dounreay
  • Al-Furat Petroleum Company (AFPC) NORM facility
    in Syria
  • The modular NORM Decontamination Facility at
    Winfrith operated for BP

17
The NORM Descaling Plant at Dounreay
18
Tubular Monitoring in the NORM Descaling Plant at
Dounreay
19
Equipment Descaling in the NORM Descaling Plant
at Dounreay
20
A View of the Front of the Al-Furat Petroleum
Company (AFPC) facility in Syria
21
The Burning Bay/Stripdown Area
22
Tubular Descaling Unit in the NDF Plant
23
The Liquid Effluent Settling Tanks in the NDF
24
The Winfrith NORM Decontamination Facility
25
The Winfrith NORM Descaling PlantTubular Receipt
Area
26
The Winfrith NORM Descaling PlantTubular
Descaling Area
27
The Winfrith NORM Descaling PlantSkid Mounted
Pump and Extract System
28
The Management of the Residual Radioactive Waste
  • Options
  • Storage on-site
  • Use of National Repository Facilities
  • Dedicated long term safe storage
  • Re-injection

29
View of the Interior of a Dedicated Waste Store
30
NORM Descaling Plants The Next Generation
31
Modular Descaling Facility using ModuCon Units
Fixed Unit (1)
32
Modular Descaling Facility using ModuCon Units
Fixed Unit (2)
33
Modular Descaling Facility using ModuCon Units
Field Transportable Unit (1)
34
Modular Descaling Facility using ModuCon Units
Field Transportable Unit (2)
35
Conclusions
  • There is now considerable design and operational
    experience of NORM de-scaling plants
  • Techniques for de-scaling have also been
    extensively developed
  • Waste management is an ongoing issue
  • New designs of plant using modular approaches
    could be more cost effective.
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