Thermal Treatment
The Thermal Treatment Integrated Project Team carried out work to understand waste applicability, technology capability and economic aspects.
Significant progress has been made since our previous Strategy (ref 3) and we have been working closely with Sellafield Limited and the wider industry, investigating and promoting the use of thermal treatment technologies, delivering research and development to better understand the scale of potential benefits (SO32) (see Research, Development and Innovation).
Thermal treatment technologies apply high temperatures to waste to destroy reactive components, reduce overall volumes and produce a stable waste form. The Thermal Treatment Integrated Project Team has carried out work to understand waste applicability, technology capability and economic aspects. We have undertaken demonstration trials using surrogate radioactive wastes to evaluate the technology and its ability to treat a range of wastes. Our trials programme has successfully processed inactive and active waste simulant under nuclear site licence conditions on the Sellafield site.
This work is the first of its kind in the UK and has confirmed that significant volume reduction and waste passivation can be achieved for ILW streams.
We continue to work with Sellafield Limited to address cultural and technical challenges, and together we have developed a clear route to implementation of these technologies. We are providing leadership and investment to support Sellafield Limited in the implementation of a programme leading to development of future facilities for the treatment of UK wastes.