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Innovation solutions aid PCM recovery
Innovative solutions have enabled the Plutonium Contaminated Material (PCM) retrievals team at the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) to recover a number of drums containing PCM waste material which were temporarily stored within ISO containers inside a compound at the LLWR.
These drums were particularly difficult to deal with because of their radionuclide inventory. However, working with BIL Solutions, part of British Nuclear Group Project Services, techniques were developed to characterise the waste and thus enable the drums to be transported back to Sellafield. As a result, the compound has been emptied of drums and the ISO containers removed.
Simon Morgan, PCM Delivery Manager said: "This represents another significant step towards the safe retrieval and return of the historic PCM from the LLWR site to Sellafield."
Jamie Rackham, Senior Physicist, BIL Solutions, explained: “One of the challenges with these drums was the accurate determination of the uranium content, because of the potential presence of self-shielding “lumps” of uranium. We developed an innovative analysis to determine whether uranium lumps are present. Almost all of the drums were found not to contain lumps and the manual repacking of these drums has been avoided. This more accurate quantification of the uranium mass has resulted in major savings in time, cost and operator dose to the LLWR Retrievals Project as well as enabling the team to meet their clean-up targets.”
