Gorleben Pilot Conditoning Plant
The use of nuclear energy requires the safe disposal of the occurring radioactive waste. With its share in the construction of the pilot conditioning plant at Gorleben, Babcock Noell has made a decisive contribution to the technological development of direct permanent disposal of used fuel elements.
The spent fuel elements supplied by the nuclear power station are taken out of their transport container at the conditioning plant and are disaggregated in a hot cell to fuel rods and structural parts. The fuel rods are loaded into special cans and these in turn are loaded into a shielded 
container suitable for permanent storage which is finally filled with helium and welded to be gastight.
The described operations are largely carried out by remote control - using machines and equipment which have been developed, designed and build by Babcock Noell. In this connection it was particularly important to ensure that maintenance and repair can also be effected by remote control in order to keep radiation exposure as low as possible for the operating staff.
With this pilot conditioning plant, Babcock Noell has created a reference plant which incooperates all nuclear experience in the area of mechanical and structural engineering.
