GD Energy Services has completed the first phase of the project for the dismantling of RTS-1 Galileo Galilei, a light water moderated and cooled open pool type research reactor with a rated power of 5 MWth.

The work has lasted 16 months and has involved a team of 20 professionals at the nuclear facilities of the Centro Interforze Studi Applicazioni Militari (CISAM) of the Italian Ministry of Defence.

The project has consisted of treating the water in the reactor pool and other storage tanks, with a view to transferring it to authorised installations following radiological verification. Likewise, all the active components have been removed from inside the reactor pool and all the active or contaminated components from inside the reactor building and irradiation channel have been decontaminated, dismantled, segregated and conditioned.