Cleanup Progress on High Hazard Legacy Facilities at Sellafield: Magnox Swarf Storage Silos
- British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd, Sellafield, Seascale, Cumbria, England, CA20 1PG (United Kingdom)
British Nuclear Group manages a number of legacy nuclear facilities including those involved in the reprocessing of spent Magnox fuel at Sellafield, in the North West of England. The cladding from this fuel (known as swarf) was, from 1964, stored under water in the Magnox Swarf Storage Silos. In addition, a large volume of fuel debris, and contaminated redundant equipment was also stored in the silos. Thus there is a significant inventory of hazardous waste, stored across 22 compartments. Much of the swarf has, by intent, corroded in water to form sludge. This sludge and other waste presents the most challenging and hazardous clean up task facing the UK nuclear industry. Achieving early, high hazard reduction is the number one national cleanup priority for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) who owns the site. This task is being safely progressed using a highly experienced and committed team, which includes many years of British Nuclear Group plant operations and project delivery experience. The team includes experience from elsewhere on the Sellafield site, and from other British and American nuclear sites. The team has recently been further strengthened with the arrival of personnel from Fluor. Progress towards waste retrieval is going well with the development of three retrieval machines underway. Project work to enable the introduction of these machines is already being safely delivered on plant, and is described below. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 13023, Tucson, AZ, 85732-3023 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21208696
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US--09-WM-06228
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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