Waste Operations (LLW Repository)
The Waste Operations division of Nuclear Waste Services manages the Low Level Waste Repository in Cumbria and ensures that lower activity waste is managed effectively across the UK.
Responsibilities
We are responsible for managing the national Low Level Waste Repository site in West Cumbria on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and overseeing a National Low Level Waste Programme to ensure that lower activity waste is managed effectively across the UK.
The LLW Repository site has operated safely since 1959. Its role is to ensure that Low level Waste generated in the UK is disposed of in a way that protects people and the environment.
What we do
The Repository site is the nation’s principal disposal facility for low level waste (LLW) and is the only facility that is permitted to receive all categories of LLW.
The Repository site receives low level solid waste from a range of customers such as the nuclear industry, the Ministry of Defence, non-nuclear industries, educational, medical and research establishments.
Through the application of the waste management hierarchy, we enable customers to access alternative options that consider re-use, recycling or other means of disposal where practicable.
How we do it
Most waste, typically paper, cardboard, plastic, protective clothing, soil, rubble and metal, arrives at the site in large metal containers.
These containers are subjected to acceptance checks to ensure compliance with the Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC). The LLW is then grouted in containers prior to disposal in engineered concrete vaults. The vast majority of waste is delivered to the site by rail.
Through the use of our Waste Services, Nuclear Waste Services also delivers safe and effective options to waste producers to reduce and recycle their wastes, with the aim of preserving capacity at the Repository site.
These routes are provided by commercial organisations working with NWS and include facilities for the treatment and recycling of metallic waste, incineration of suitable waste, the diversion of Very Low Level Waste (VLLW) to suitably licensed landfill sites and supercompaction of waste to minimise volumes sent to the Repository site.
The company’s National Waste Programme (NWP) is another key area in ensuring lower activity waste is managed effectively. The NWP team promotes the use of alternative waste management routes by educating and influencing the behaviours of waste producers.
Our history
Originally disposal of LLW at the Repository was based on landfill practices, with waste being tipped into clay-based trenches and covered with layers of stone and soil. This practice continued for over three decades.
Ownership of the Repository passed to the newly created British Nuclear Fuels Limited in 1971 and the site was managed as part of Sellafield until 2007, when LLW Repository Ltd (LLWR) was formed to hold the Nuclear Site Licence for the Repository.
The following year international consortium UK Nuclear Waste Management (UKNWM) won the 17-year contract to act as Parent Body Organisation (PBO) with responsibility for operating and managing LLWR.
In 1988 a new approach to the treatment and disposal of LLW in the UK saw the opening of Vault 8, an engineered facility for the long-term management of LLW. Under this new system, LLW was placed in containers and grouted prior to disposal in this vault. Some 22 years later, Vault 9 opened.
Planning approval was granted in 2016 for a programme that would permit the construction of a final cap over the trenches, current vaults and any new vaults. This secured the site’s future for decades to come. The initial stage of this major piece of work is now underway.
In July 2021 the PBO contract concluded and LLWR became a subsidiary of the NDA. And more recently, January 2022, has come together with Radioactive Waste Management Ltd (RWM), to form a single waste organisation under the NDA, called Nuclear Waste Services.
More information about the history of the site
LLW Repository site: Environmental Safety Case and Permit Approval
LLWR’s application to vary its Environmental Permit to allow continued disposal of radioactive waste at the Repository was submitted in October 2013. The application was supported by an Environmental Safety Case (ESC) submitted in May 2011.
The objective of the ESC is to demonstrate to the Environment Agency and other stakeholders that it is safe to continue to dispose of LLW at the Repository.
This document:
- Involved more than 80 technical experts in its production
- Took 85 man years of work to develop
- Comprised 2,000 pages and was made up of 17 reports and a non-technical summary
- Included a further 100 underpinning reports making up another 10,000 pages
Among issues examined in detail were:
- Geology
- Hydrogeology
- Waste characterisation
- Waste processing
- Engineering of the waste vaults
- Potential radiological impacts
- Coastal erosion
- Engagement with stakeholders
The Environment Agency completed a detailed review of the 2011 Safety Case and consulted on the permit application and subsequent draft decision which resulted in the Environment Agency granting a revised permit.
On 1 November 2015, the revised permit became effective, achieving a key objective of the NDA when awarding the new contract for managing LLWR in 2008.
Further information regarding the ESC and Permit
LLWR Socio-economic Fund
The LLWR Socio-economic Fund provides support to local initiatives/groups within a 30-mile radius of the Repository site.
Updates to this page
Last updated 19 July 2024 + show all updates
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Updated to reflect Nuclear Waste Services becoming a single legal entity.
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First published.