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Decommissioning of historic waste store picks up pace
Using over 90 tonnes of steel and delivered three weeks earlier than planned, an important decommissioning project that will enable historic waste retrieval operations to commence has taken a major step forward.
Work to install the operations floor of a new engineered building which will allow waste characterisation and retrieval work to begin in a historic beta gamma waste store, has now been completed.
The store, within the site’s separation area, was constructed in 1951 to support the management of low active effluent arising from early reprocessing operations on the Sellafield site.
The original facility contains eight open-top, above ground cells. From the 1970s, the cells were identified as suitable containment for the storage of miscellaneous beta gamma (low and intermediate level) waste including items such as filters, pipework and scaffolding. The process of storing waste in this way continued through to 2000.
“Due to the age, integrity of the storage and nature of the inventory, the cells were deemed unsuitable for long term storage,” said Adrian Long, project manager.
“A project was therefore initiated in 2004 to construct a facility that would provide a new engineered building with operations floor and electrical services (power, lighting, environmental monitoring and fire detection capability) that will enable us to begin waste characterisation and retrieval operations.”
Although the first part of the project has now been completed and the project is going a long way to meet its licence specification, the team still has a significant amount of work to do as Adrian continues: “Now we’ve completed the operations floor we can begin construction of the overbuilding itself and then installation of the associated electrical and safety equipment.”
Head of enabling projects, Alan Prescott, added: “Despite several set backs and many difficult issues, the project team including Sellafield Ltd and the main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, is now close to victory. Safe and successful completion of this stage represents a significant step forward thanks to the hard work and perseverance of the teams involved.”
