Ventilation System for a New Building at Sellafield

Air Technology Systems were to design and install a complete, highly efficient, Ventilation System for a new building at Sellafield.

Client – Morgan Sindall

Long-term client, Morgan Sindall is part of the Infrastructure Strategic Alliance (ISA), which has a £1.1 billion contract to deliver a range of infrastructure asset services to the Sellafield site.

Project Scope & Objectives

  • To check and validate the outline design.
  • To supply and install an Industrial Ventilation System to provide Climate Control within the new building.

The system needed to maintain:

  • A winter minimum of 15°C at -4°C (heating)
  • A summer maximum of 20°C at 24°C (cooling)

Challenges

This was our first major nuclear project; therefore it presented a number of challenges:

  • Significantly higher technical specification and quality levels across the entire project
  • The security requirements that needed to be fulfilled and the physical logistics of working within a highly protected and secure nuclear decommissioning site
  • Understanding the culture of Sellafield and this very sensitive industry
  • In addition to the industry-related challenges, we had the physical challenge of Sellafield’s coastal location and the associated aggressive and corrosive environment

Solution

From first discussions, we liaised with Morgan Sindall for a full understanding of all the implications associated with working on the Sellafield site.

Our innovative decision to manufacture, assemble and test all equipment off-site saved project time and money and enabled full inspection prior to delivery. In total, 75% of commissioning was completed off-site.

To combat the corrosive nature of the coastal location, all external equipment was constructed from high grade stainless steel with a 60-year lifetime.

Result

Air Technology Systems helped to exceed all the project’s goals with completion achieved in a quicker time frame than predicted and with the overall project an impressive £11M under budget.

This outcome was reflected in Morgan Sindall’s project assessment, where the company scored ATS a ‘good to excellent’ 9/10 in nine categories and an ‘excellent’ 10/10 in four categories, namely, Innovation, Technical Support, Management and Delighted Customer. All of which gave us an overall assessment score of 92%. The project also received a ‘Sellafield Award for Return on Investment’.