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Reprocessed uranium is successfully shipped to Russia
In the last few weeks Sellafield Ltd has exported a shipment of reprocessed uranium to Russia for processing to allow its manufacture into new fuel. The uranium is owned by a German reprocessing customer and this is the ninth such shipment of material from Thorp.
Steve Cockayne, Head of Thorp said: "This latest shipment means that over 1000te of uranium has now been exported from Thorp since 2001 which is a significant milestone and really does prove what a good plant Thorp is.
"Processing this uranium and manufacturing it into new fuel will avoid the mining over half a million tonnes of typical uranium ore from the ground – clearly a huge environmental benefit."
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. Many customers choose to have the uranium processed in Russia, as the UK does not have the facilities to allow its recycle into new fuel.
The material was loaded onto a Direct Rail Services (DRS) train at Sellafield and transferred to the port for onward shipping to Russia on 5 July. The uranium is contained in cylindrical steel drums (each about the size of a small beer keg) securely loaded into ISO freight containers that comply with international transport requirements.
Thorp has been performing well and is currently reprocessing British AGR fuel. So far this financial year 128te of fuel has been sheared. In addition, the safety regulator has issued a Licence Instrument to allow the operation of the supporting evaporator to reprocess 1,000te of fuel in Thorp, with inspections every 300te.
