THREE MILE ISLAND

Contracting Agent:
Brandenburg Industrial

Project Location:
Middletown, PA

Project Highlights:

On October 26th, 2009 work began on a scheduled shut down of Exelon Nuclear’s Three Mile Island Generation Station Unit 1. During the shut down new steam generators were installed, one third of its fuel rods were replaced, and more than 25,000 other maintenance, operational, and testing activities were completed.

Brandenburg Industrial Service Company contracted Atlantic Concrete Cutting to complete wire sawing on one of the facility’s stilling boxes as part of the demolition and redesign of the cooling tower baffle plates. The three-foot thick concrete roof and north end wall were to be removed in separate crane picks.

It was the intent of Brandenburg to minimize the days of crane usage on site requiring ACC to work two crews for consecutive 12-hour shifts through completion of the wire sawing. All wire sawing was planned to be completed while sections of risers and valves were removed, ensuring no crane down time for the concrete removal.

The first cut would be one single horizontal pull around the perimeter of the structure to release the roof from the walls. Scrap pieces of 2 x 4’s were secured to the wall at the cut line ensuring the 68 feet of wire required to wrap the entire structure would all stay on the same plane. The Plattner Hi-Cycle wire saws could easily handle such a large pull, and completing the roof section cut in one complete perimeter pull eliminated four wire access core holes. The 168 square foot wire pull was completed in less than two shifts.

As the work continued on the roof section, wire access holes were drilled and a second wire saw was set up to begin work on the northern wall section. First, a 60 square foot bottom horizontal cut would be made followed by two 42 square foot vertical cuts, releasing the 20’ x 14’ wall section from the remaining structure. These three cuts were completed during the second and third shifts. The twelve 6” diameter cores required for crane rigging access were completed in a fourth shift.

The 312 square feet of wire sawing, all wire access cores, and all rigging cores were completed on schedule. The crews were reminded of summer’s end with temperatures in the 40s and what seemed like constant rain but they came through in the end. The roof section was removed as planned, weighing a substantial 77 tons while the north wall section “only” tipped the scales at 66 tons.

A congratulations and sincerest thank you to Jim Clark, Frank DiBrienza, Tom Penza, Brian Samanns, and Damon Winner for the safe completion of another successful Atlantic Concrete Cutting project.

Heavy rains during the work presented some water management challenges.

View of the stilling box.

Close-up view of the stilling box.

Crane attached to the top of the stilling box.

Lid of the box being lifted away.

Lid of the box being lifted away.

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