Low Level Waste Repository's landmark achievement
A landmark has been reached at the UK's Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) as the 11,000th container has been diverted from disposal at the site.
Vault 9 at Low Level Waste Repository
The achievement is equivalent to diverting TWICE the number of containers that it would have taken to fill Vault 9 on the Cumbrian site.
Vault 9 opened in 2010, providing urgently needed waste disposal capacity to support the UK’s nuclear decommissioning programme.
When it was built, the specially-engineered vault was designed to hold more than 5,000 ISO containers filled with low level radioactive waste from nuclear sites, medical and industrial facilities across the UK.
LLW Repository Ltd has been working hard to divert and treat waste, saving precious capacity on the site and removing the potential requirement for a second national repository - at an estimated cost of more than £2bn.
Dave Rossiter, LLWR’s Head of Waste Management Services, said:
Without our diversion policy, Vault 9 would now have reached capacity and we would no doubt have been more than half way to filling a further vault.
We have embedded Waste Management Services within the business, ensuring a range of alternatives are available for waste destined for disposal at the LLWR.