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08-11-2004 LGC wins major contract with British Nuclear Group

LGC contributes to research into nuclear fuel clean-up with new contract. 

LGC, Europe’s leading independent analytical laboratory providing advanced chemical, biochemical and forensic analysis, has won a major contract to analyse metals for British Nuclear Group’s novel multimillion-pound vitrification test rig (VTR).

British Nuclear Group, the nuclear clean-up business established in May 2004 by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), converts highly active liquor (HAL) generated by spent nuclear fuel reprocessing operations into a solid glass product at its waste vitrification plants (WVP). British Nuclear Group’s new VTR is an exact replica of the main unit operations of the WVP at Sellafield in Cumbria. This full-scale, inactive facility will enable full testing of any new process modifications and, by correlation with LGC’s analytical results, will improve the understanding of the vitrification process and, ultimately, improve the operation of the WVP.

Nick Gribble, British Nuclear Group’s Technical Manager on the VTR project, said: "Vitrifying the high-level waste here at Sellafield is a key part of the site’s clean-up programme. This new contract with LGC will help to ensure that the VTR fulfils its aim of improving the efficiency of the existing vitrification lines."

Commenting on the new contract, which was won following an extremely thorough tender process, Neil Malone, Business Development Manager at LGC’s site in Runcorn, Cheshire, said: "LGC is extremely pleased to have been selected as British Nuclear Group’s preferred analytical supplier for this project, which is a great achievement for us. The results of LGC’s analyses will be used by British Nuclear Group to make key decisions on critical plant operation variables, leading to improvements in both process operability and product quality at higher plant throughputs."

The Runcorn based characterisation team from LGC’s Pharmaceutical and Chemical Services Division will deliver the contract for British Nuclear Group.