Waste management: nuclear waste treatment ... - Sellafield Ltd

More documents

Recommendations

Info

A number of projects and initiatives are under wayacross Sellafield Ltd to ensure that innovative solutionsare realised to enable the delivery of our integratedwaste management programme.Current waste projectsThe Integrated Waste Strategy is akey enabler in accelerated clean-upat the Sellafield site which will alsodeliver major benefits by reducingwaste volumes in the intermediateand low level waste categories.Laurence Cook, Head of WasteOur third Encapsulated Product Store (EPS3) isnearing completion and will provide additionalcapacity to support the two existing stores atSellafield which house intermediate level waste.EPS3 will take intermediate level waste arising from bothreprocessing operations and decommissioning work at Sellafield,providing interim storage for encapsulated waste on the site.Work to construct a sludge packaging plant (SPP1) at Sellafield isprogressing towards a completion date of 2014. The 1st buffer storagevessel has been assembled (33m long, 7m wide and 3.5m high) andtransferred into the building – representing the largest stainless steelfabrication on the site since the 1980s. A further two vessels are dueto be completed towards the end of 2012. Once completed, SPP1 willprovide the site with a designated facility for receiving and processinglegacy sludge retrieved from the first generation magnox storage pondprior to long term storage or disposal.Site preparation for the fourth Highly Active (HA) Liquid Evaporator(Evaporator D) began in 2008, with the first concrete pour of thebase slab in mid 2009. The site’s HA evaporators play a pivotal role inthe delivery of reprocessing, historic clean-up and hazard reductionmissions across the Sellafield site by concentrating the volume ofthe radioactive liquid waste through an evaporative heating process.AchievementsThe first ever high active wasteshipment from Sellafield to overseascustomers commenced in 2010 aspart of the Vitrified Residue ReturnsProgramme.With shipments undertaken from theUK to Japan and the Netherlands, thefirst two consignments were receivedsafely, securely and in full regulatorycompliance by June 2010.In 2011, our Miscellaneous Beta Gamma Waste(MBGWS) teams reached an impressive safetymilestone. Responsible for providing safe and securestorage for intermediate level waste, the team of30 worked 15 years without a lost time accident.15 yearswithout a lost timeaccident.
Evaporator D will provideSellafield will additionalevaporative capacity.The modules are beingdelivered to Sellafield bysea and installed using agantry on site.Evaporator D will provide additional evaporative capacity to supportthe site’s existing evaporators. Construction of the new facility willinvolve off-site fabrication of a series of large scale modules whichwill then be transported to the site by sea and installed into thebuilding’s concrete shell using a gantry system. This is the first timein the history of the Sellafield site that such large-scale modularconstruction will be used.A key milestone in reducing legacy wastes stored atSellafield will be reached with the return of vitrifiedresidue to overseas customers.In 2010 we started returning vitrified high level waste to overseascustomers in both Japan and Europe.The 10 year Vitrified Residue Returns programme, will seeapproximately 1,850 containers of vitrified (solid) waste returned tocustomers in fulfilment of contractual obligations.Delivery of this programme demonstrates the role that Sellafield Ltdis playing in substantially reducing the volume of solid highly activewaste temporarily stored at Sellafield.plant – the Residue Export Facility (REF) which will be used to loadvitrified (solid) highly active waste canisters into a flask for export toour customers in fulfilment of contractual obligations. In total, theUK will return approximately 1,850 containers of vitrified waste inaccordance with regulatory requirements.In addition to constructing and developing plants to deal withcurrent and future waste arisings, our Integrated Waste Strategyfor dealing specifically with low level waste is aimed at ensuringtechniques are implemented to minimise and where possible,avoid the generation of this category of waste.An average of 900 tonnes of metal a year is processed through ourWheelabrator facility which treats metal by mechanically removingthe outer surface. Once cleaned of contamination, the materialwhich includes redundant metal from decommissioning projects,skip handlers, ISO-freight containers and structural steel can berecycled back into the scrap metal market.One of the main benefits of our Integrated Waste Strategy is that ithas the potential to reduce the number of ISO-freights of low levelwaste disposed to the Low Level Waste Repository by more than30%, which is equivalent to 20,000 ISO-freight containers.In order to do this, we have commissioned a specially designedIn November 2010, our waste teamssafely processed almost the sameamount of plutonium contaminatedmaterial into a passive form over atwo year period compared to thatwhich had previously been processedin the previous 11 years.1,400 tonnesOur Metals Recycling Team processed over 1,400Tesof metal during 2011/2012 against a baseline target of950 tonnes and a stretch target of 1,350 tonnes. Thisincludes nearly 400Tes of metal shipped for off sitetreatment via the LLWR Segregated Services contractincluding 54-Multi element bottles. Over and abovethe 1,400Tes over 1,300Tes of clean metal has beendispatched off the site by the Metals Recycling Team.
Page 1 and 2: Waste management overviewWaste mana
Page 3 and 4: We have 50 years experience in the
Page 5 and 6: Nuclear wastecategorisation.% High
Page 7: ExpertsOn the Sellafield site we ar
Page 11 and 12: ContinualimprovementThrough continu

Waste management: nuclear waste treatment ... - Sellafield Ltd

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?