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Thorp Uranium Recycled
In the last week, Sellafield Ltd has exported a shipment of reprocessed uranium to Russia for manufacture into new fuel. The uranium which is owned by European customers is the seventh such shipment of material from Thorp. Manufacturing new fuel from this reprocessed uranium proves the technical viability of reprocessing and will avoid mining 160te of fresh uranium from the ground.
Steve Cockayne, head of Thorp said: “It’s good to see uranium from Thorp being exported for incorporation into new fuel, after all that’s what recycling is all about. The team have worked very hard to get Thorp successfully up and running again and this is another indication of what the team and plant can achieve.”
After reprocessing, the separated uranium and plutonium belongs to customers and it remains their decision how to deal with it following its removal from Sellafield. This latest shipment means that a total of 843te of uranium has now been exported out of the Thorp store since 2001.
The material was loaded onto a Direct Rail Services (DRS) train at Sellafield and transferred to Hull for onward shipping to Russia on 25 July. The uranium is contained in cylindrical steel barrels (each about the size of a small beer keg) that comply with international transport requirements and are securely loaded into ISO freight containers for shipment.
