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Sellafield Clean Up Success
One of Sellafield’s most significant, long-standing environmental risks has been cleaned up.
Approximately 95 percent of the radioactive sludge stored in a 50-year-old concrete waste tank, associated with the historic flocullation plant, has been removed and placed in a modern high integrity tank to prepare it for final treatment and encapsulation into a safe and long-term stable wasteform.
“With this milestone achievement, we have successfully reduced one of the primary environmental hazards associated with Sellafield,” said Ian MacPherson, Head of Manufacturing for the Effluent Plants, who led the technically challenging project. “The tank has held waste for more than a half century. It was gradually degrading and presented a known environmental risk. Through great teamwork and perseverance we have securely retrieved and stored the sludge and now have it programmed for final disposition - a great achievement for the workforce at Sellafield.
“This has been a great job by the entire team,” said Mike Johnson, Executive Director, Production Operations at Sellafield. “They epitomise the site’s commitment to reducing the high-hazard legacy of the site. The lessons they’ve learned and the technical solutions they’ve demonstrated will be applied across the site for future risk reduction and waste remediation projects.”
Ian Hudson, NDA Sellafield Programme Director, added his congratulations to the project team: “Tackling the high hazard legacy issues at Sellafield is a key focus of the NDA. The success of this project demonstrates the benefit of blending the world leading capability of the site’s new management team with the existing world-class technology and workforce at Sellafield. Throughout this effort, the team demonstrated persistence and creativity to overcome the many technical challenges they faced.”
The next step in the process is to have the sludge processed through the site’s Low Active Effluent Treatment Plants where it will be encapsulated in concrete and stainless steel ready for long-term storage.
