Sellafield - Teams at Sellafield Ltd. are nearing completion on a pilot scheme to segregate potential Plutonium Contaminated Material (PCM) from Low Level Waste (LLW), which could save the company up to £1.42M (Euro 1,63M) in disposal costs. The work resulted in 865 bags of air–fed suits being reclassified as LLW (with no items being classed as PCM) rather than the original estimate of only 400. These suits originate from a variety of Sellafield buildings and decommissioning operations, and were bagged and set aside during a transition period between changes in the policy of cleaning air-fed suits.

The packages were retrieved from the storage ISO freights within a tented facility with a designated respirator protection area. The packages were then over-bagged and transferred a short distance to another building where they will be monitored. The key driver behind this work is to safely dispose of this legacy waste in a safe manor; This will allow demolition of the ISO freight buildings, which will allow further remediation and allocation of more space for decommissioning operations within the complex.

The segregation of LLW from PCM in this way is new to Sellafield Ltd, but it is hoped that this project will pave to improving the utilisation of PCM storage at Sellafield. This process is made possible due to a new drum scanning system which is manufactured and operated by VT Group, who is working closely with Sellafield Ltd on the project. Once the scanning process has been set up the ongoing operation is relatively simple and is very similar to other Sellafield waste consigning procedures.

Anthony Hewetson, head of operations for the Separation Area Decommissioning and Demolition team said; "My thanks go all those who have helped make this possible, including the decommissioning safety case support team, the RPA, the radiometric and nuclear physics intelligent customer team, The S&RM safety case team, REACT Engineering, who produced and coordinated the mass of support documentation, VT services, Nuvia Ltd, the decommissioning and demolition support contractor, the LLW skip controllers and the waste technical team.

"Cost information from Alan Black of the waste technical team says that the saving is £5,000 per drum. This project is only a comparatively small pilot and if the same process is used at a plant where PCM is regularly consigned it could have the potential to save Sellafield Ltd around £1.42M."

Quelle: Sellafield Ltd.

Zurück