Cavendish Nuclear’s Greeson Court Laboratory has provided an analytical and dosimetry service to the Sellafield site for over 30 years – delivering over 40,000 radiological and non-radiological analytical results for approximately 3,500 environmental and personnel (dosimetry) samples each year.
In October 2018, an investment of £400k was made to refurbish two of the laboratory areas. The High Environmental laboratory and the Development Chemistry laboratory have now had a complete overhaul and in March 2019 the upgrades were completed on time, to budget and with a 100% safety record.
On Thursday 13th June the labs were officially opened by senior members of the Cavendish Nuclear Leadership Team, who were impressed with how much the facility had changed to meet the needs of the growing market and how the facility is now well equipped for future success.
The High Environmental lab refurbishment involved replacing ageing fume hoods with efficient new extract equipment and upgrading all of the lab furniture. Extract capacity has now been increased by almost 60%. New access routes to the rear of the building and into the Enhanced Activity Radiological Laboratory (EARL) were also established allowing the analysis of higher activity samples and thus expand the market offering.
The Development Chemistry laboratory has been extended and fitted out with new fume hoods, generating a new area that can be used for development chemistry projects, routine analysis or new packages of work – in particular work involving higher activity samples.
The extension will also help facilitate the development chemistry projects that are essential to improving current analytical processes and the development of new methods that will grow the services which can be offered to current and new customers.
Janet Fletcher, Head of Products and Services for Cavendish Nuclear attended the opening said;
‘This refurbishment has more than just rejuvenated an ageing facility. Cavendish Nuclear is now able to grow its capabilities at Greeson Court, opening doors to new revenue streams within the UK’s nuclear estate and beyond for radiological and non-radiological chemical analysis of environmental and nuclear decommissioning samples. I’m delighted that my team are working in state of the art facilities and there are some really exciting times ahead for us.’
