Ansaldo Nucleare S.p.A (Italy) and Ansaldo Nuclear Ltd(UK), together operating under the name Ansaldo Nuclear, provide design, engineering, manufacturing, assembly, testing, commissioning, site installation and integrated logistics through life support of bespoke solutions for all of the four nuclear business lines in which they operate: Nuclear New Built, Fusion, Plant Operation Assistance and Decommissioning and Waste Management.

With forecasted revenues of 90 million € in 2021 and a total workforce of above 400 employees, Ansaldo Nuclear operates in the domestic and international nuclear markets, managing the entire business from its headquarters and operational offices in Genova (Italy) and Wolverhampton (UK), directly and through the branches located, among others, in Romania and France, and the representative office in Russia.

With its Engineering Units that cover a wide range of disciplines, and its manufacturing capabilities based in Wolverhampton (UK), Ansaldo Nuclear is a “One Stop Company” fully dedicated to the Nuclear Industry and to the Sustainability of the Nuclear Option.

The Decommissioning and Waste Management business line has been focused on Italian and UK markets, with some relevant activities on foreign markets (Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine and others). Ansaldo Nuclear collected extensive experience in waste management over the years, with capabilities that include the design, erection and commissioning of facilities for the size reduction, sorting, decontamination of solid waste, remote handling bespoke solutions, nuclear cranes and handling devices, equip-ment and associated control systems for the retrieval of active components from silo storage. The company developed a remarkable decom-missioning set of skills and grew through the management of field operation, leveraging strategical cooperation with dismantling com-panies.

Ansaldo Nuclear, through its Mechatronics department, provides design, construction, and commissioning of cutting and handling custom machines for nuclear decommissi-oning. Moreover, Ansaldo Nuclear own an important portfolio in terms of products and technologies, that includes Technologies for pre-disposal of “hard to condition” organic waste (notably, ion exchange spent resins through a Wet Oxidation Technology – WOX) and processes for the off-line decontamina-tion of metal waste from dismantling (down classified through the PHosphoric Acid DECon-tamination – PHADEC).

In the coming years the Decommissioning market is forecasted to exponentially grow, hence Ansaldo Nuclear is continuously investing on new products and technologies. In this regard, Ansaldo Nuclear developed an innovative technology: a pilot plant for the vitrification of iron phosphates at tempe-rature above 1000°C is demonstrating the repeatability and excellent chemical resistan-ce of glasses. The retention yields for radio-nuclide simulants are larger than 95%, and minimum fraction of P2O5 lost in the melting. Small amounts of “fluxing” chemicals improve the process, even reducing the melting tem-perature and improving retention yields.

The resulting vitrified waste can also be directly stored into one of Ansaldo’s main Products: the CONTAS. CONTAS is the Ansaldo High Integrity Container for the conditioning of solid heterogeneous Intermediate Level Waste: a forged carbon steel cylindrical container, overall dimension ø1100mm x 1500mm (h), usable volume 500 liters, general minimum wall thickness 160mm which makes it particularly suitable for b-g emitters waste. CONTAS exercise is guaranteed for a lifetime of 50 years without any maintenance intervention, extendable to 100 years with few possible refurbishing operations (such as gasket replacement and small repairs). Safety, Quality and Sustainability are key values driving our „New Clear “ business. All the above elements, combined with 60 years of experience, make Ansaldo Nuclear a reliable industrial partner in the whole nuclear sector.