Category: Rigging Job over $750,000

Replacing a reactor head and steam generators at a nuclear power plant

The Steam Generating Team Ltd, Charlotte, NC, called on Mammoet USA, Rosharon TX, to help replace a reactor head weighing 172,674 pounds and two steam generators weighing 1,144,500 pounds each at a nuclear power plant in Russelville, AR. Judging the lifting equipment already inside the containment building to be inadequate for handling the lifts, Mammoet developed separate hydraulic push and pull travel systems, as well as lift systems with 900 ton capacity strand jacks, for the building's interior and exterior.

Mammoet used self propelled modular transporters in a double 16-lines configuration for onsite transportation. Complicating factors included the strict safety and radiological protection rules of a nuclear environment, the ongoing presence of plant staff, and a tight schedule within the set outage critical path time.