URS Corporation (formerly United Research Services ) was an engineering , design , and construction firm and a U.S. federal government contractor. Headquartered in San Francisco , California , URS was a full-service, global organization with offices located in the Americas , Europe , Africa , and Asia-Pacific .
86-498: URS was acquired by AECOM on October 17, 2014. URS Corporation’s oldest predecessor company was founded in 1904. URS was established in 1951 and incorporated in 1957 as Broadview Research – a research group active in the area of physical and engineering sciences. In 1967, management developed a growth strategy focused on building a multidisciplinary professional services firm. In 1968, Broadview Research acquired United Research Incorporated of Cambridge, Massachusetts. During this period,
172-566: A "transformation into a higher-margin, lower-risk Professional Services business". In August 2021, AECOM announced plans to relocate its global headquarters from Los Angeles, California to Dallas, Texas . The company has worked on megaprojects including the Sutong Yangtze River Bridge (the world's longest cable-stayed bridge ), One World Trade Center (the tallest tower in the Western Hemisphere), as well as some of
258-592: A GDF were estimated £12.2 billion in 2008. The NDA's share of this is £10.1 billion, which results in a discounted amount of about £3.4 billion. Following the decision taken by the British government in January 1947 to develop nuclear weapons, Sellafield was chosen as the location of the plutonium production plant, consisting of the Windscale Piles and accompanying reprocessing plant to separate plutonium from
344-455: A museum involving renovating Calder Hall and preserving the towers were formulated, but the costs were too high. The cooling towers were demolished by controlled implosions on 29 September 2007. A period of 12 weeks was required to remove asbestos in the towers' rubble. The WAGR was a prototype for the UK's second generation of reactors, the advanced gas-cooled reactor or AGR, which followed on from
430-517: A nuclear reactor. Between 1977 and 1978 an inquiry, chaired by Mr Justice Parker , was held into an application by BNFL for outline planning permission to build a new plant to reprocess irradiated oxide nuclear fuel from both UK and foreign reactors. The inquiry was used to answer three questions: "1. Should oxide fuel from United Kingdom reactors be reprocessed in this country at all; whether at Windscale or elsewhere? 2. If yes, should such reprocessing be carried on at Windscale? 3. If yes, should
516-462: A provider of consulting services to the US Agency for International Development and other multi-lateral donor organizations. On July 28, 2008, AECOM completed its purchase of Earth Tech Inc., a consulting and engineering firm, from Tyco International for $ 510 million. On July 14, 2010, AECOM announced its acquisition of Tishman Construction Corp., a leading provider of construction management services in
602-431: A refining operation called Ashland Refining Company, headed by Paul Blazer . While the parent company struggled, leading to the ouster of Miles, Ashland prospered under Blazer's leadership, and in 1936, he was named chief executive officer of the reorganized company, Ashland Oil & Refining Company. In 1966, Ashland acquired Warren Brothers and became involved in highway construction and construction materials. The company
688-592: A subsidiary of the NDA. Sellafield accounts for most of the NDA's decommissioning budget and the increases in future cost estimates. Its share (discounted, including Calder Hall and Windscale; excluding Capenhurst) increased from 21.9 billion (65%) in 2007 to 97.0 billion (82%) in 2019. In 2013, the UK Government Public Accounts Committee issued a critical report stating that NMP had failed to reduce costs and delays. Between 2005 and 2013,
774-497: A timely fashion since the cladding corrodes if stored underwater, and routes for dry storage have not yet been proven, so it has been necessary to keep the plant running to process all the Magnox fuel inventory. Magnox fuel reprocessing ceased on 17 July 2022, when the reprocessing plant completed its last batch of fuel after 58 years of operation. A total of 55,000 tonnes of fuel had been processed during those years. This
860-417: A year later was reorganized as a modified holding company. A new corporate strategy was implemented as Ashland now focused on refining and marketing and sought to grow its non-refining businesses. In 1984, Ashland acquired Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall (DMJM), a global provider of transportation-related engineering services. Originally focused on military projects, after World War II it had become one of
946-452: Is Europe's largest nuclear site and has the most diverse range of nuclear facilities in the world on a single site. The site's workforce size varies, and before the COVID-19 pandemic was approximately 10,000 people. The UK's National Nuclear Laboratory has its Central Laboratory and headquarters on the site. Originally built as a Royal Ordnance Factory in 1942, the site briefly passed into
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#17332025979571032-476: Is expected to take until 2032, followed by a care and maintenance phase from 2033 to 2104. Demolition of reactor buildings and final site clearance is planned for 2105 to 2114. As of March 2021, the NDA reported that they had: In August 2023, work started to retrieve waste from the PFCS, which had been created in the 1950s to store cladding from used Windscale Piles nuclear fuel, described as "a momentous milestone in
1118-477: Is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, United States, with clients in more than 150 countries. The company reported a revenue of US$ 17.4 billion during the 12 months that ended September 30, 2016. In 2024, the company reported revenue of $ 14.37 billion, with an operating income of $ 324 million. Sellafield Sellafield , formerly known as Windscale , is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on
1204-551: Is one of the largest and most complex nuclear sites in the U.K., storing and treating nuclear waste from both the U.K.'s military and civil nuclear programs. URS lost this contract in January 2015. URS provided comprehensive project and construction management services for the reconstruction of the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, the largest building project ever undertaken by the University of California. URS
1290-580: Is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) which is a non-departmental public body of the UK government. Following a period 2008–2016 of management by a private consortium, the site was returned to direct government control by making the Site Management Company, Sellafield Ltd , a subsidiary of the NDA. Decommissioning of legacy facilities, some of which date back to the UK's first efforts to produce an atomic bomb,
1376-496: Is planned for completion by 2120 at a cost of £121 billion. Sellafield was the site in 1957 of one of the world's worst nuclear incidents . This was the Windscale fire which occurred when uranium metal fuel ignited inside Windscale Pile no.1 . Radioactive contamination was released into the environment, which it is now estimated caused around 240 cancers in the long term, with 100 to 240 of these being fatal. The incident
1462-553: The Department of Energy and Department of Defense . On January 31, 2020, this transaction was completed with the new company being called Amentum . In October 2020, AECOM announced the sale of its Power construction business to private equity firm CriticalPoint Capital. In December 2020, AECOM announced the sale of its Civil construction business, including Shimmick Construction, to private equity firm Oroco Capital, which completed January 5, 2021. AECOM explained these divestitures as
1548-505: The Energy Act 2004 as part of government policy to introduce competition into the nuclear industry to better control decommissioning costs. In 2008, the NDA awarded Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) the position of Parent Body Organisation of Sellafield Ltd under their standard management model for NDA sites; this gave them complete responsibility for operating and managing the NDA-owned assets,
1634-492: The Magnox reprocessing plant came on stream to reprocess spent nuclear fuel from the national Magnox reactor fleet. The plant used the "plutonium uranium extraction" ( Purex ) method for reprocessing spent fuel, with tributyl phosphate in odourless kerosene and nitric acid as extraction agents. The Purex process produces uranium, plutonium and fission products as separated chemical output streams. Magnox fuel has to be reprocessed in
1720-429: The Magnox stations. The station had a rated thermal output of approximately 100 MW and 30 MWe. The WAGR spherical containment, known colloquially as the "golfball", is one of the iconic buildings on the site. Construction was carried out by Mitchell Construction and completed in 1962. This reactor was shut down in 1981, and is now part of a pilot project to demonstrate techniques for safely decommissioning
1806-495: The 11,000m3 of historic waste from the silos and storing safely have taken over 20 years. On 10 June 2022, Sellafield Ltd announced the commencement of waste retrievals which will take approximately 20 years. Once this radiological hazard has been removed, the MSSS structure can be demolished. Calder Hall was first connected to the grid on 27 August 1956 and officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 17 October 1956. It
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#17332025979571892-459: The 1970s, Ashland Oil & Refining became Ashland Oil, Inc. Five years later the company consolidated its construction assets into a construction division and also formed a coal subsidiary, indicative of a changing focus at Ashland. Although it generated more than $ 1 billion a year in sales, Ashland was a small player in the oil industry at a time when the cost of exploration was prohibitively expensive. By 1980, Ashland sold its production assets, and
1978-574: The 4,200-acre Kennedy Space Center complex, including its 900 mission-specific facilities, 16,000 unique NASA systems and equipment, and 600 unique U.S. Air Force systems and equipment. In the United Kingdom, a URS-led team was responsible for management and operation services at the Sellafield nuclear complex, including commercial operations, waste management, support services, decontamination and decommissioning, and new construction projects. Sellafield
2064-504: The British engineering firm Scott Wilson Group . On June 2, 2011, URS completed its acquisition of Apptis Holdings, Inc. for a purchase price of $ 260 million in cash. URS announced its acquisition of Flint Energy Services, a provider of construction services in the oil and gas industry, based in Calgary, Alberta, on February 20, 2012. On October 20, 2014, URS was officially acquired by AECOM. URS provided ongoing management and operation of
2150-718: The Denver, Colorado based civil, geotechnical and environmental engineering firm Woodward-Clyde Group in 1997 for $ 100 Million, bringing additional environmental capabilities and a broader international presence to the organization. When Dames & Moore Group joined in 1999 (which had recently absorbed the Australian firm Hardcastle & Richards ), URS further strengthened its program and construction management expertise and added to its FORTUNE 500 client base. In February 1999, URS also acquired transport consultant Thorburn Colquhoun. In 2002, URS acquired EG&G Technical Services, positioning
2236-478: The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District blamed the acquisition for delaying construction of a safety barrier at the bridge by 2 years. In October 2019, AECOM announced plans to sell their Management Services division to private equity firm American Securities LLC and Lindsay Goldberg for $ 2.405 billion. Management Services provides services and support to governmental clients including
2322-507: The I-35W bridge was "inadequate load capacity, due to a design error by Sverdrup & Parcel and Associates, Inc., of the gusset plates at the U10 nodes, which failed under a combination of (1) substantial increases in the weight of the bridge, which resulted from previous modifications, and (2) the traffic and concentrated construction loads on the bridge on the day of the accident." URS was not involved in
2408-422: The MSSS which will be processed in other specially designed site facilities, and then placed in interim storage at Sellafield. Longer term it is hoped such waste would be consigned to a deep geological repository for permanent storage. The radioactive inventory and lack of modern standards in the silo has made it the most complicated and highest-priority mission in the NDA estate nationally. Preparations for removing
2494-506: The Ministry of Supply for the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons . Construction of the nuclear facilities commenced in September 1947 and the site was renamed Windscale Works. The building of the nuclear plant was a huge construction project, requiring a peak effort of 5,000 workers. The two air-cooled and open-circuit, graphite -moderated Windscale reactors (the " Windscale Piles ") and
2580-553: The Minnesota Department of Transportation to conduct a fatigue evaluation and a redundancy analysis of the bridge. Lawsuits filed in 2008 and 2009 cite the company with negligence. In 2010, these lawsuits were settled out of court without the admission of negligence or wrongdoing on the part of URS. In November 2008, the National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause of the collapse of
2666-653: The Starboard Value board member in protest over the selection. AECOM was included on Fortune 's list of the world's most admired companies in 2024. AECOM provides Archaeology, Architecture & Design, Urban Planning, Landscape Architecture, Asset Management, Construction, Cost Management, Decommissioning & Closure, Economics, Engineering, Environmental Services, International Development, IT & Cyber Security, Operations & Maintenance, Planning & Consulting, Program Management/Construction Management, Risk Management & Resilience and Technical Services. AECOM
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2752-519: The UK Government announced that all production of plutonium for weapons purposes had ceased. The station was closed on 31 March 2003, the first reactor having been in use for nearly 47 years. decommissioning started in 2005. The plant should be in save storage, called "care and maintenance" (C&M), by 2027 or later. Calder Hall had four cooling towers , each 88 metres (289 ft) in height, which were highly-visible landmarks. Plans for
2838-507: The UKAEA. At this time the site was being expanded across the River Calder where four Magnox reactors were being built to create the world's first commercial-scale nuclear power station. This became operational in 1956 and was the world's first nuclear power station to export electricity on a commercial scale to a public grid. The whole site became known as "Windscale and Calder Works". Following
2924-787: The United States and the United Arab Emirates, in a $ 245 million transaction including $ 202 million in cash and the remainder in AECOM common stock. On July 13, 2014, AECOM announced its acquisition of URS Corporation , an engineering, construction, and technical services firm for US$ 56.31 per share in cash and stock. Effective July 10, 2014, it acquired ACE International Consultants SL, a Madrid-based provider of consulting services. In July 2014, it acquired Hunt Construction Group, adding to AECOM's construction services business. In July 2017, AECOM acquired Shimmick Construction Company. Officials at
3010-478: The annual costs of operating Sellafield had increased from £900 million to about £1.6 billion. The estimated lifetime undiscounted cost of dealing with the Sellafield site increased to £67.5 billion. NMP management was forced to apologise after projected clean-up costs passed the £70 billion mark in late 2013. In 2014, the final undiscounted decommissioning cost projection for Sellafield
3096-640: The associated First Generation Reprocessing Plant, producing the first British weapons grade plutonium-239 , were central to the UK nuclear weapons programme of the 1950s. Windscale Pile No.1 became operational in October 1950, just over three years from the start of construction, and Pile No.2 became operational in June 1951. With the creation of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) in 1954, ownership of Windscale Works passed to
3182-401: The break-up of the UKAEA into a research division (UKAEA) and a newly created company for nuclear production British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) in 1971, a major part of the site was transferred to BNFL ownership and management. In 1981 BNFL's Windscale and Calder Works was renamed Sellafield as part of a major reorganisation of the site and there was a consolidation of management under one head of
3268-415: The coast of Cumbria , England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste processing and storage and nuclear decommissioning . Former activities included nuclear power generation from 1956 to 2003, and nuclear fuel reprocessing from 1952 to 2022. The licensed site covers an area of 265 hectares (650 acres), and comprises more than 200 nuclear facilities and more than 1,000 buildings. It
3354-468: The company and was succeeded as COO by Randy Wotring. As of March 2019 , key leaders of AECOM were as follows: In November 2019, AECOM announced that Burke would retire as chairman and CEO. The change was announced to be effective after either the next annual meeting or completion of the search for a replacement. At the same time, AECOM said that the board of directors would be expanded to include representatives of activist-shareholder Starboard Value ,
3440-600: The company as a leading U.S. federal services contractor. In November 2007, URS acquired Washington Group International of Boise for $ 3.1B and operated it as the "Energy and Construction Division". On June 12, 2009, URS Chief Executive Officer Martin Koffel indicated the company was still on the hunt for "transformative acquisitions". An analyst with Gabelli & Co. stated that KBR , Chicago Bridge & Iron Company , and Foster Wheeler AG may be possible takeover targets. On September 10, 2010, URS completed its acquisition of
3526-521: The company. Dionisio had previously served as COO from October 2003 to October 2005 and president and CEO of the subsidiary DMJM+Harris from October 2000 to October 2003. In October 2011, Michael S. Burke succeeded Dionisio as president and then in March 2014 succeeded him as CEO. Burke joined AECOM in 2005 and was appointed CFO in 2006. In 2011, Stephen M. Kadenacy was named chief financial officer, later promoted to president and COO. In 2017, Kadenacy left
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3612-528: The consortium's fault." The indemnity had been rushed through prior to the summer parliamentary recess without notifying parliament. On 13 January 2015, the NDA announced that NMP would lose the management contract for Sellafield as the "complexity and technical uncertainties presented significantly greater challenges than other NDA sites", and the site was therefore "less well suited" to the NDA's existing standard management model. The new structure, which came into effect on 1 April 2016, saw Sellafield Ltd. become
3698-535: The country of origin. The UK retained low and intermediate level waste resulting from that reprocessing, and in substitution shipped out a radiologically equivalent amount of its own HLW. The policy was designed to be environmentally neutral by expediting, and reducing the volume, of shipments. Nuclear decommissioning is the process whereby a nuclear facility is dismantled to the point that it no longer requires measures for radiation protection. Sellafield's highest priority nuclear decommissioning challenges are mainly
3784-521: The decommissioning is not expected until at least 2037. In 2014, radioactive sludge in the Pile Fuel Storage Pond (PFSP), built between 1948 and 1952, started to be repackaged in drums to reduce the "sludge hazard" and to allow the pond to be decommissioned. Decommissioning will require retrieval of sludge and solids, prior to dewatering and deconstruction, with retrievals planned for completion in 2016. The first generation reprocessing plant
3870-405: The decommissioning story at Sellafield as the first batch of waste was successfully retrieved from the site’s oldest waste store" and "one of the most complex and difficult decommissioning challenges in the world". Following ownership by BNFL , since 1 April 2005 the site has been owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), a non-departmental public body of the UK government created by
3956-522: The dewatering and dismantling of the remaining structure. Future work will immobilise the sludge for long-term storage, and process solids through the Fuel Handling Plant for treatment and storage. The Magnox Swarf Storage Silo is a large building on the Sellafield Site which contains intermediate level fuel cladding swarf waste arising from reprocessing Magnox reactor fuel. Once expended fuel
4042-594: The direct workforce and the site. This consortium, composed of US company URS , British company AMEC and French company Areva , was initially awarded a contract for five years, with extension options to 17 years, and in November 2008, NMP took over management of the site. In October 2008, it was revealed that the British government had agreed to issue the managing body for Sellafield an unlimited indemnity against future accidents; according to The Guardian , "the indemnity even covers accidents and leaks that are
4128-528: The end of February 2014, the hedge fund Jana Partners disclosed that they had acquired an activist investor ownership position in the publicly traded company, announcing an intent to engage the corporate management on board and corporate structure and to create shareholder value. Amidst industry speculation of a corporate breakup for URS, AECOM announced on July 13, 2014 that an agreement was reached to acquire URS for about $ 4 billion in cash and shares with another $ 2 billion in assumed debt. The final acquisition
4214-465: The end of reprocessing, Sellafield is still the central location which receives and stores used fuel from the UK's fleet of gas cooled reactor stations. The site has also processed overseas spent fuel from several countries under contract. There had been concern that Sellafield would become a repository for unwanted international nuclear material. However, contracts agreed since 1976 with overseas customers required that all High Level Waste be returned to
4300-422: The entire BNFL Sellafield site. The remainder of the site remained in the hands of the UKAEA and was still called Windscale. Sellafield was the centre of UK nuclear reprocessing operations, which separated the uranium and plutonium from minor actinides and fission products present in spent nuclear fuel . The uranium could be used in the manufacture of new nuclear fuel, or in applications where its density
4386-406: The fifth largest shareholder. Amid market speculation that AECOM would be acquired by WSP Global , AECOM announced the selection of W. Troy Rudd to be CEO. The change will be effective as of October 1, 2020 . Before his appointment as CEO, Rudd served as CFO for the company. The announcement included naming Lara Poloni as the new president. The announcement resulted in the resignation of
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#17332025979574472-464: The first integrated engineering and architectural firms in the western United States. The acquisition of DMJM also included its president, Richard G. Newman . In 1985, DMJM became part of a new subsidiary, Ashland Technology Corporation. Two years later Newman was named its new chief executive and president. When Ashland chose to return to its core petroleum refining business in the late 1980s, Newman recommended an employee buyback proposal, resulting in
4558-450: The fiscal year 2013 revenue and earnings were below expectations, URS made some management changes. URS had acquired Flint Energy Services for $ 1.25 billion in February 2012, creating an oil and gas division for the company. Issues in the oil and gas division were cited for the poor financial performance in fiscal year 2013 and URS announced the resignation of senior staff from that division. By
4644-399: The hazardous nature of the process, and to reduce the risk of WW2 enemy air attack. There were also existing rail links, and a good supply of high quality water from Wastwater . Production ceased at both factories immediately following the defeat of Japan. After WW2 , the Sellafield site was briefly in the ownership of Courtaulds for development as a rayon factory, but was re-acquired by
4730-436: The largest sports venues, ports, and disaster recovery programs in the world. AECOM's first president and CEO was Richard G. Newman, who came to Ashland through its acquisition of Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall (DMJM). Under Ashland Oil's ownership, he was president and chief operating officer of DMJM from October 1985 to December 1988. While president of Ashland Technology Corp. from December 1988 until May 1990, Newman
4816-474: The legacy of the early nuclear research and nuclear weapons programmes. There is a considerable inventory of buildings which have ceased operating but are in "care and maintenance" awaiting final decommissioning. The 2018–2021 NDA business plan for Sellafield decommissioning is focused on older legacy high hazard plants and includes the following key activities in the area of Legacy Ponds and Silos; Also: Defuelling and removal of most buildings at Calder Hall
4902-441: The members of the criticality safety team with URS employees. AECOM AECOM ( / eɪ . iː ˈ k ɒ m / , ay-ee- KOM ; formerly AECOM Technology Corporation ; stylised A Ξ COM ) is an American multinational infrastructure consulting firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas. AECOM has approximately 51,000 employees, and is number 291 on the 2023 Fortune 500 list. The company's official name from 1990–2015
4988-480: The name Broadview Research was changed to United Research Services and later shortened to URS. URS was publicly traded as NYSE : URS from January 13, 1978 through its acquisition by AECOM on October 17, 2014. It was originally traded as Thortec. A major investor was Richard Blum , husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein . As of June 2013, the firm had more than 50,000 employees worldwide, in nearly 50 countries. Following announcements in early February 2014 that
5074-544: The ownership of Courtaulds for rayon manufacture following WW2 , but was re-acquired by the Ministry of Supply in 1947 for the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons which required the construction of the Windscale Piles and the First Generation Reprocessing Plant, and it was renamed "Windscale Works". Subsequent key developments have included the building of Calder Hall nuclear power station -
5160-533: The pond was renamed in 2018. As of 2014, the FGMSP remains as a priority decommissioning project. As well as nuclear waste, the pond holds about 1,200 cubic metres (42,000 cu ft) of radioactive sludge of unknown characteristics and 14,000 cubic metres (490,000 cu ft) of contaminated water. Decommissioning requires retrieval of the radioactive sludge into a newly built Sludge Packaging Plant, as well as fuel and skip retrieval. Completion of this will allow
5246-562: The quantity surveyors and construction consultants. In 2000, AECOM acquired Metcalf and Eddy, a water and wastewater engineering firm based in Massachusetts, and in September, 2004 it acquired the Canadian company, UMA Engineering Ltd. AECOM went public during May 2007 with an initial public offering on the NYSE, netting $ 468.3 million. On January 8, 2008, AECOM acquired The Services Group, Inc.,
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#17332025979575332-503: The release of radioactive material. Following the fire, Pile 1 was unserviceable, and Pile 2, although undamaged by the fire, was shut down as a precaution. In the 1990s, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority started to implement plans to decommission, disassemble and clean up both piles. In 2004, Pile 1 still contained about 15 tonnes (14.76 L/T ) of uranium fuel , and final completion of
5418-477: The safe processing and dry storage of Magnox cladding swarf. This still left the problem of removing waste material that has been stored in hazardous conditions in the MSSS. To accomplish this complex task, Sellafield Ltd has partnered with commercial firms to design, construct and operate a remotely operated waste retrieval facility called the Silo Emptying Plant (SEP). This is designed to retrieve waste from
5504-402: The shafts. Thanks to innovative filters installed by Nobel laureate Sir John Cockcroft 95% of the material was captured. As a precautionary measure, milk from surrounding farming areas was destroyed. However, no residents from the surrounding area were evacuated or informed of the danger of the radiation leakage. It is now believed that there have been 100 to 240 cancer deaths as a result of
5590-476: The silo allowed for hydrogen gas to be safely vented before it could accumulate, and the heat can be removed through re-circulation of the water. The Magnox Swarf Storage Silo ceased being filled in 2000. Many of the historic Sellafield operating practices have been superseded by better and safer alternatives. Consequently, since 2000 the Magnox Encapsulation Plant on site has been responsible for
5676-608: The spent nuclear fuel. Unlike the early US nuclear reactors at Hanford , which consisted of a graphite core cooled by water, the Windscale Piles consisted of a graphite core cooled by air. Each pile contained almost 2,000 tonnes (1,968 L/T ) of graphite, and measured over 7.3 metres (24 ft) high by 15.2 metres (50 ft) in diameter. Fuel for the reactor consisted of rods of uranium metal, approximately 30 cm (12 inches) long by 2.5 cm (0.98 inches) in diameter, and clad in aluminium . The initial fuel
5762-454: The spin-off of Ashland Technology and the creation of AECOM (Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Operations, and Management) in 1990. The company went on to acquire a number of engineering, design and planning firms including engineering company Maunsell, urbanism and sustainability practice EDAW , Economic Research Associates (ERA), environmental management firm ENSR and The RETEC Group Inc., architects Ellerbe Becket and Davis Langdon ,
5848-479: The whole site for process and other purposes. The reactors were supplied by UKAEA, the turbines by C. A. Parsons and Company , and the civil engineering contractor was Taylor Woodrow Construction . In its early life Calder Hall primarily produced weapons-grade plutonium, with two fuel loads per year; electricity production was a secondary purpose. From 1964 it was mainly used on commercial fuel cycles ; in April 1995
5934-656: The work being conducted on the bridge at the time of the collapse or in the design of the bridge. The Martin Olav Sabo Bridge over Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis experienced failure of two of its longest support cables on February 20, 2012. URS Corporation was the design consultant for the bridge that was completed in 2007. These failures resulted in closures of Hiawatha Avenue and the adjacent light rail between Mall of America and downtown Minneapolis for safety precautions while support structures were put in place. Rail service
6020-481: The world's first nuclear power station to export electricity on a commercial scale to a public grid, the Magnox fuel reprocessing plant, the prototype Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) and the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP). Decommissioning projects include the Windscale Piles, Calder Hall nuclear power station, and a number of historic reprocessing facilities and waste stores. The site
6106-734: Was AECOM Technology Corporation, and is now AECOM. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol ACM and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol E6Z. AECOM traces its origins to Kentucky-based Ashland Oil & Refining Company , which in turn grew out of Swiss Drilling Company, founded in Oklahoma in 1910 by J. Fred Miles. He gained control of some 200,000 acres and formed Swiss Oil Company in Lexington. In 1924, Miles launched
6192-441: Was able to take advantage of refinery byproducts to produce asphalt. Ashland grew into one of the nation's major road-construction firms, and laid a foundation for AECOM. Through a series of acquisitions and technological developments, Ashland grew to include chemical, petrochemical, highway construction, and construction materials firms within its realm, laying the groundwork for a management buyout of Ashland Technology in 1985. In
6278-514: Was an asset. The plutonium was originally used for weapons, and later in the manufacture of mixed oxide fuel ( MOX ) for thermal reactors . Reprocessing ceased on 17 July 2022, when the Magnox Reprocessing Plant completed its last batch of fuel after 58 years of operation. Sellafield Site has had three separate fuel reprocessing facilities: Magnox and THORP had a combined annual capacity of nearly 2,300 tonnes. Despite
6364-658: Was built to extract the plutonium from spent fuel to provide fissile material for the UK's atomic weapons programme , and for exchange with the United States through the US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement . The Butex process was used (a forerunner to the more efficient Purex process) and the plant operated from 1951 until 1964, with an annual capacity of 300 tonnes (295 L/T ) of pile spent fuel, or 750 tonnes (738 L/T) of low burn-up fuel . It
6450-426: Was built to support reprocessing of fuel from UK Magnox power stations through the Magnox Reprocessing Plant . It was initially planned to be used to keep fuel rods in for three months before they were reprocessed, but was used for operations between 1959 until 1985. The pond is 20 m (66 ft) wide, 150 m (490 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) deep. Originally called B30 (and nicknamed 'Dirty 30'),
6536-522: Was decided on October 17, 2014, and URS was officially part of AECOM as of October 20, 2014. In 1996, URS acquired Greiner Engineering for $ 73.5 million. Greiner Engineering had been established in 1908 by John E. Greiner. Greiner was a former bridge engineer for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and worked at one time for Gustav Lindenthal , including on the Seventh Street Bridge . URS acquired
6622-536: Was deposited into individual water-filled compartments within the MSSS. As they became full, more were added between the 1960s and 1983 totalling 22 compartments. In the early 1990s, the wet storage of this waste was no longer seen as the most effective way to store the material, and in later years was replaced with a dry storage method. The long-term storage and subsequent degradation of the magnesium alloy swarf in water causes an exothermic reaction which releases hydrogen gas. Normal operating procedures and overall design of
6708-448: Was first used to reprocess fuel from the Windscale Piles but was later repurposed to process fuel from UK Magnox reactors. Following the commissioning of the dedicated Magnox Reprocessing Plant, it became a pre-handling plant to allow oxide fuel to be reprocessed in the Magnox reprocessing plant. It was closed in 1973 after a violent reaction within the plant contaminated the entire plant and 34 workers with ruthenium -106. In 1964,
6794-413: Was increased to £79.1 billion, and in 2015 to £117.4 billion. The annual operating cost was projected to be £2 billion in 2016. In 2018, it was revealed that the cost could be £121 billion by 2120. The cost does not include the costs for future geological disposal (GDF). These include research, design, construction, operation and closure. The undiscounted lifetime costs for
6880-449: Was instrumental in taking it from a division of Ashland Oil to an independent company. He was president when the company changed its name to AECOM Technology Corporation in April 1990. Newman was president until 1993, and then chairman, president and CEO from May 1993 to October 2000, and chairman and CEO from 2000 to 2005. In October 2005, John M. Dionisio succeeded Newman as president and CEO of AECOM. In 2011, Dionisio became chairman of
6966-595: Was loaded into the Windscale Piles in July 1950. By July 1952 the separation plant was being used to separate plutonium and uranium from spent fuel. On 10 October 1957, the Windscale Piles were shut down following a fire in Pile 1 during a scheduled graphite annealing procedure. The fire badly damaged the pile core and released an estimated 750 terabecquerels (20,000 curies ) of radioactive material, including 22 TBq of Cs-137 and 740 TBq of I-131 into
7052-687: Was rated 5 out of a possible 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale . The site was established with the creation of Royal Ordnance Factory ROF Sellafield by the Ministry of Supply in 1942; built by John Laing & Son at the hamlet of Low Sellafield. The nearby sister factory, ROF Drigg, had been constructed in 1940, 3 miles (5 km) to the south-east near the village of Drigg. Both sites were classed as Explosive ROFs , producing high-explosive at ROF Drigg, and propellant at ROF Sellafield . They were built in this location to be remote from large centres of population because of
7138-432: Was removed from the Magnox reactors, the magnesium cladding was removed prior to the chemical processing of the fuel rod. To accomplish this, the fuel can was fed through a machine known as a "decanner" which stripped the cladding off the inner rod creating the swarf of broken magnesium alloy cladding as a waste product. Since the start of commercial Magnox reprocessing in 1964 (the same year MSSS began operations), this waste
7224-630: Was restored after four days while Hiawatha Avenue road traffic remained closed for staging of construction equipment. This failure occurred less than 18 months after URS Corporation settled out of court the lawsuits surrounding the Minneapolis I-35W bridge collapse. URS was one of the contractors responsible for operating nuclear facilities at Los Alamos. In 2011, URS was involved in a criticality accident that nearly caused an uncontrollable nuclear reaction after mishandling plutonium. This occurred during lax safety protocols and after they replaced all of
7310-701: Was the contractor for the Port Washington Generating Station in Wisconsin, an 1100 MW combined-cycle power plant, which was recognized by Power Magazine as one of its top plants of 2008. URS also helped build the state-of-the-art Holcim cement manufacturing plant in Missouri, one of the largest cement manufacturing facilities in the world. The I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed in August 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145. In 2003, URS had been retained by
7396-473: Was the world's first nuclear power station to provide electricity on a commercial scale to a public grid. The Calder Hall design was codenamed PIPPA (Pressurised Pile Producing Power and Plutonium) by the UKAEA to denote the plant's dual commercial and military role. Construction started in 1953. Calder Hall had four Magnox reactors capable of generating 60 MWe (net) of power each, reduced to 50 MWe in 1973. The reactors also supplied steam to
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