Latest news

Tuesday 5th April 2011

Safety success for teams at Sellafield

Members of the MBGWS - just one of the teams who have reached the safety milestone

Sellafield Ltd’s Effluent and Encapsulation Plants (E&EP) teams are celebrating having reached one year worked without a Lost Time Accident (LTA).

More than 500 employees work within E&EP – a series of facilities used to process intermediate level solid waste and liquid effluents generated across the Sellafield site prior to final encapsulation or released to the environment within the limits specified by our regulators.  

Firn Ireland, Head of Manufacturing for Encapsulations Plants said: “I am delighted with the Encapsulation Plant’s achievement of over 12 months without an LTA. This shows the team’s real commitment to safety in an area that was suffering from about one LTA every two months previously.

“The team has not only reversed its safety record, they have also increased productivity with both the Waste Encapsulation Plant (WEP) and the Encapsulated Product Store (EPS) achieving higher throughput rates than in previous years.”

The Local Active Effluent Management Group Plants led by Head of Manufacturing, Chris Scrugham, also achieved one year without an LTA in ageing facilities which present these teams with several asset condition and operational challenges on a day to day basis. Chris’s team also safely recovered around 20te of historic active contaminated metals from the site sludge storage facility over the past 12 months. This is a new record performance for this plant and presents a significant hazard reduction for the site.

Congratulating the entire workforce, Head of Effluent and Encapsulation Plants, Andy Toffolo, said: “We are all striving towards continuous safety improvement and this is a good marker on our journey, especially when you look at individual plant performances. Miscellaneous Beta Gamma Waste Store teams achieved 14 years without an LTA, Enhanced Actinide Removal Plant achieved 6 years without an LTA, Salt Evaporator Medium Active Solvents team achieved 3 years without an LTA and Waste Packaging and Encapsulation Plant achieved 2 years without an LTA.

"In acknowledgement of the safe working practices of the personnel involved a donation of £800 will be given to two charities chosen by the employees, Air Ambulance and the Red Cross.”