" Nuclear " Loads Demand Big Soluti
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" AS each station costs £50m. to £60m. and transport costs are sm each to the whole, it is vital to 'think big' in the planninj execution of the transport operation." Having made this point, Mr. McBryde, traffic manager of Babcock and Wilcox, Ltd., went on to give examples of what "thinking big" involved, when he presented a "Transport of heavy engineering plant for a nuclear power station," Industrial Transport Association in London last week.
The first seven nuclear power stations now building in this country were in fairly remote coastal areas, said Mr. McBryde. The problems involved in his own company, with works near the Clyde at Renfrew, having to supply heavy steam-raising plant to a remote spot in Somerset were vividly described by the author.
" Accustomed as we were to moving large tonnages of conventional boiler material and heavy indivisible loads, we encountered something out of the usual pattern and had to adjust our ideas," said Mr. McBryde; the power station specification included 12 heat exchangers, each over 90 ft. long, 21 ft. 10 in. in diameter and weighing 325 tons, and two spherical reactor vessels 67 ft. in diameter and made of 3-in.-thick steel.
Delivery of the heat exchangers by road or rail was obviously impracticable, and towing by sea did not prove feasible in this case. It was decided to break each down into nine sections, to be assembled on site, but even so this meant transporting a total of 108 of these, over 21 ft. in diameter, up to 16 ft. 10 in. deep and weighing 40-45 tons each.
The delivery site was about 30 miles
from both Bristol and Avonmo nearest big ports, on roads th always busy and in summer c Cranage was in any case inadequ negotiating Bridgwater would ha a major problem.
An ancient silted-up port vi covered at Combwich, only fot from the working site, and even was decided to rehabilitate this, junction with the English Elect Ltd., who also needed heavy f Large (45-ton and 150-ton) cran installed there and the lanes from wich to the power station were up to 18-20 ft. width with wide This road cartage (which, wit] 27 ft. 6 in. high, involved lifti phone and high-voltage cable done without mishap by the heal age service, B.R.S. (Pickfords), Lto mainly used an 80-ton well trai occasionally a 40-ft. boat trailer In addition, 24-ft. and 30-ft. art units, all with adjustable bolstei used. At one time 15 such uni in use.
The total transport cost per tc pared "more than favourably" wi land transport, said Mr. McBryde