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Historic radioactive waste store meets the mark
Ten years of improvement work have been rewarded when a radioactive waste store dating back to the 1950s received approval for its continued safe operation as an interim beta gamma waste store.
This achievement is all the more impressive as the building was never designed to store this type of radioactive waste, and a long list of improvements had to be made in order to bring the plant up to standard and satisfy safety regulator, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII).
An engineered overbuilding had to be built over the original facility which contained eight cells. The cells hold miscellaneous beta gamma waste which comprises both low and intermediate radioactive wastes from Magnox reprocessing operations.
An export slab was built as a base for crane operations to deconstruct the existing building and construct the new store overbuilding. New cell covers were installed to ensure engineered containment of the cells and local containment facilities were erected to enable the safe removal of inter cell wastes.
The completion of these challenging engineering improvements meant that the facility can function as an interim store complying with regulatory requirements. The next phase of work will be the installation of systems to enable historic waste characterisation and retrieval. These wastes will then be properly treated and the 50 year old building finally decommissioned.
Early on in the project, workers had to wear respirators and PVC suits in order to safely carry out the improvements necessary because of the condition of the stored wastes. However, now that the programme of work has been completed, dose rates to workers have been reduced and the store has been brought up to modern engineering standards.
Best practices and cost saving approaches to decommissioning have been taken including the use of specialist working platforms rather than the extensive use of scaffolding.
Some of the activities carried out were only possible because of the integrated project team approach. The project team comprised Sellafield employees, lead contractors and sub contractors who all worked together to deliver the programmes of work.
Russ Mellor, Decommissioning Director said: “This is the working way of the future. We have demonstrated we can work together to shift resources to address emerging and high priority issues. There has been a real spirit of genuine partnership.”
