Corporate report

Case studies: Integrated Waste Management strategic theme

Updated 2 October 2023

Overview

Our strategy considers how we manage all forms of waste arising from operating and decommissioning our sites, including waste retrieved from legacy facilities.

Managing the large quantities of radioactive waste from electricity generation, research, the early defence programme and decommissioning is one of the NDA’s biggest challenges. Some of this radioactive waste is in a raw (untreated) form, some has been treated and is being interim stored and, in the case of low level waste, some has already been permanently disposed of.

Retrieving, treating and interim storing the radioactive waste from Sellafield’s four legacy ponds and silo facilities is the NDA’s highest priority. For more information on the types of waste we manage, see our Strategy document.

Our Integrated Waste Management (IWM) work is separated into 14 strategic outcomes that we must deliver, outlined below.

Low level waste
Group key target	Activity	2023 % complete	Sellafield	Magnox	Dounreay	NWS	NTS	Capenhurst	Springfields
26	All LLW produced	8	X	X	X	X		X	X
27	All LLW treated - to enable diversion or reuse	9	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
28	All waste suitable for disposal in NDA facilities	16	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
29	All waste suitable for permitted landfill disposed	5	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Intermediate level waste
30	All ILW produced	33	X	X	X	X		X	X
31	All legacy waste retrieved	9	X			X
32	All ILW treated	10	X	X	X			X	X
33	All ILW in interim storage	15	X	X	X			X	X
34	All ILW disposed	0	X			X	X
High level waste
35	All HLW produced	60	X
36	All HLW treated	72	X				X
37	All HLW waste in interim storage	81	X				X
38	All overseas HLW exported	51	X				X
39	All HLW disposed	0	X			X

Geophysical surveys undertaken - Summary

Nuclear Waste Services has undertaken its first marine geophysical survey off the coast of Cumbria. This non-intrusive survey has gathered data to provide a better understanding of the deep geology and supports the search to find a suitable site for a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). Analysis of the data collected will be shared with communities to support discussions about the potential of an area to host a GDF.

Geophysical surveys undertaken

For more information

First marine geophysical surveys set to begin - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Magnox puts first concrete box in Berkeley store - Summary

The Magnox team at Berkeley has safely transferred its first concrete box of radioactive waste into the site’s purpose-built waste store using a brand new waste storage package and innovative waste retrieval techniques. This builds on a commitment to safe hazard reduction, which has already seen the demolition of buildings and removal of redundant equipment, including the site’s 310-tonne steel boilers, all of which were sustainably recycled.

Magnox puts first concrete box in Berkeley store

For more information

First concrete box of radioactive waste safely transferred - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

First waste sealed in Dounreay waste vaults - Summary

Dounreay has started sealing waste into place in its low level waste vaults for the first time. Trials were conducted to ensure the containers could be sealed safely with grout.

The external space around the outside of the walls of the vault has been backfilled with aggregate, with enough used to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool, up to 2.5m high around the structure.

First waste sealed in Dounreay waste vaults

For more infomation

First containers sealed into Dounreay low level waste vaults - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

New £250m facility gets to work at Sellafield - Summary

A Silo Maintenance Facility designed to support the retrieval of waste from two of Sellafield’s most hazardous legacy facilities is now active. The facility maintains the equipment used to retrieve radioactive waste from the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo and the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo. It’ll also maintain the flasks that will transport the waste from silos to modern storage facilities that are being constructed on the site.

New 250m facility gets to work at Sellafield

For more information

What is the Silo Maintenance Facility at Sellafield? - Case study - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Sellafield makes big progress with waste retrievals - Summary

Sellafield celebrated a number of firsts in progress towards clean up and decommissioning of its legacy ponds and silos, some of the most complex and difficult decommissioning challenges in the world. Summer 2022 saw the first of three retrievals machines begin retrieving waste from the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo, which stored casings from used nuclear fuel rods in its water-filled chambers for over 60 years.

Meanwhile a team of specialist nuclear divers became the first humans in over six decades to enter the Pile Fuel Storage Pond (PFSP). They learned valuable lessons about how divers might contribute to the clean-up and dewatering of nuclear ponds in the future.

Sellafield makes big progress with waste retrievals

Case study

First retrievals from the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo

The Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS) has stored the casings from used nuclear fuel rods in its water-filled chambers for over 60 years.

Today, teams at Sellafield are working to remove the waste inside, place it inside stainless waste containers and move it to a modern storage facility on the site.

In June 2022 the first of three retrievals machines began retrieving waste from the silo for the first time; an achievement that has been decades in the making.

Divers enter the Pile Fuel Storage Pond

The Pile Fuel Storage Pond (PFSP) is one of the oldest stores on the Sellafield site and was used to cool and store fuel from the Windscale Piles, the first nuclear reactors to be constructed at Sellafield in the 1940s.

In the last decade significant progress has been made in retrieving and safely storing fuel, bulk sludges and redundant equipment from the pond.

In December 2022 a team of specialist nuclear divers became the first humans in over 60 years to enter the pond, to learn valuable lessons about how divers might contribute to the clean-up and dewatering of nuclear ponds in the future.

First retrievals from the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo

The Pile Fuel Cladding Silo (PFCS) is a 70-year-old waste store built to house the casings from used nuclear fuel from the Windscale Piles and the UK’s earliest civil nuclear reactors.

Today this ‘locked vault’ contains more than 3,200 cubic metres of intermediate-level waste that needs to be removed and placed into modern storage.

Preparations for retrievals include the construction of a huge concrete superstructure around the building, the installation of shield doors, the cutting of holes in the side of the silo and installation of modules that will reach in and retrieve the wastes.

The first retrievals from PFCS took place in August in 2023, representing a landmark achievement in the decommissioning story at Sellafield.

First active operations in the Silos Maintenance Facility

The Silos Maintenance Facility (SMF) is a newly-constructed, modern facility on the Sellafield site that will support retrievals from the site’s two legacy silos – the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo and the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo.

SMF will maintain the retrievals equipment and transport flasks needed to take full containers of wastes from the two silos to modern storage facilities elsewhere on the site.

After eight years of construction SMF celebrated its first active operations in February 2023.