Bury-based Pennine was selected based on its 25 years experience of deploying telecommunication solutions in the unique and challenging environments that exist on a nuclear licensed site. This includes provision of two way-radio communications for Sellafield Ltd, Magnox, Westinghouse, Urenco, British Energy and the supply, installation and maintenance of integrated command and control systems for the Civil Nuclear Constabulary who are responsible for policing all UK civil nuclear sites.
Serving around 100 users the new system comprises five Simoco X-fin MPT1327 blades, each containing a trunked controller and UHF repeater station. With integration into the Sellafield telephone system, calls can be transferred from the radio to any telephone extension on site and vice versa providing improved communications across the facility. The X-Fin system operates with three fixed control room radios and Motorola GP680 keypad hand portables.
Sellafield Plant Maintenance Manager Carl Pettigrew says the introduction of the new system was essential to improve on-site communications. “Previously we have utilised two-way radios with no infrastructure support and we simply were not getting the coverage.” This was not due to the size of the cacility, but its physical make up. “It’s not a vast area but there are a lot of coverage issues due to the amount of steel reinforcement and thickness of concrete structures blocking radio signals,” he explains.