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Waste reduction in the low level waste handling facility at Sellafield
Introducing a new low level waste handling facility in Sellafield’s separation area has resulted in significant reductions to activity declarations.
The new process, introduced jointly by the Clearance and Characterisation and Separation Waste Handling teams, involves the use of installed radiometric instrumentation for measuring Solid Low Level Waste in conjunction with hand held dose rate meters.
In the past, waste was measured at building of origin, which included background radiation. By processing the materials through the new facility, activity declaration reductions of almost ninety percent have been achieved on the 10,000 waste packages processed to date.
“This is a real step forward and sets a new site standard,” said John Cooke, technical manager. “By making our waste characterisation as good as it possibly can be and more accurately measuring the waste we can set a new foundation for future disposals. This should dramatically reduce the amount of waste we either have to store or send to the Low Level Waste Repository – a big win!”
