Strategic Guidance on the Management of LLW and ILW / LLW ...

LLW Repository LtdNational Waste ProgrammeNWP/REP/011Issue 2.1 – Jan 2013Page 37 of 58ILW/LLWCase Study E – Metal Melting of Ferrous Fuel Skips from Hinkley Point AChallengeDeplanting of fuel cooling ponds at Hinkley Point A Nuclear Power Plant (Magnox Ltd.) produced 185te offerrous metallic pond skips, previously used for the wet storage of irradiated nuclear fuel. A wastemanagement solution for the treatment and disposal of this waste (classified as LLW, with average activity 5GBq/te of predominantly Cs-137, Sr-90 and C-14).SolutionBetween 2007 and 2010, a project was undertaken in collaboration between Magnox Ltd. andEnergySolutions for the management of this waste. Magnox Ltd. undertook the partial decontamination ofpond skips to facilitate their transfer off-site for treatment. The pond skips were packed into 15 half-heightISO containers (HHISO) and shipped to the Bear Creek facility in Tennessee for melting (Figure 8).Undertaking this project has diverted these 15 half-height ISO containers away from disposal at the LLWR;with 95% recycled as shield block material (Figure 9) and sold for re-use in the nuclear industry, with theremaining 5% of secondary waste disposed of at EnergySolutions Clive facility in the USA.Figure 8 – Metal melt andpour process at Bear Creek.Figure 9 – Cast recycled metalshield blocks at Bear Creek.This project is ongoing with a number of skips awaiting treatment, owing to the high activity of the skipstransferred for processing.A company owned by UK Nuclear Waste Management LtdNOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED