Amarinth has supplied the UK’s Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing facility with fully interchangeable pumps to replace some Girdlestone units from the 1990s.
The Girdlestone pumps were commissioned at the Sellafield site 25 years ago and so are coming to the end of their natural working life. Direct replacement units are no longer available.
For one of the pumps, used to transfer nitric acid in a controlled area of the process control facility, the engineers at Sellafield decided that to maintain operations a replacement was required. They needed a solution that did not require any modification to pipework and fittings, and all within 20 weeks.
Amarinth was able to provide a bespoke version of one of its existing designs in the timescales required. Although the selected pump was already dimensionally interchangeable, Amarinth redesigned the pump casing and impeller to ensure an exact match to the existing pumps hydraulic performance. The new fully interchangeable pump was designed, manufactured, tested and supplied all within the necessary 20 weeks.
“We have been providing support and replacement pumps for the now obsolete Girdlestone units for many industrial uses around the world since Amarinth was founded,” explained Oliver Brigginshaw, managing director of Amarinth. “We are delighted to be extending that support into the nuclear and power industry and look forward to working with Sellafield and other sites to provide a long-term and cost effective solution as their existing equipment reaches its natural end-of-life.”
