The world’s oldest nuclear waste store has been cut open for the
first time.
Experts at the Sellafield nuclear site have cut the hole in the
Pile Fuel Cladding Silo, a locked vault which was never designed
to be opened.
This is the first of six holes that will allow radioactive waste
to be removed from one of the site’s most hazardous buildings.
The silo was built in the 1950s when the site’s purpose was to
make material for nuclear weapons.
Safely decommissioning the building is one of the highest
priorities for Sellafield Ltd and the Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority, and will take them a step closer to reducing the UK’s
nuclear hazard.
Steven Carroll, Head of the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo, said:
I am incredibly proud of the work that our Sellafield Ltd and
supply chain teams have achieved together, in preparing the
silo for successful waste retrievals.
The level of challenge involved with this facility is
unparalleled, considering the age of the building, the lack of
historical information about the waste itself, the atmosphere
inside the silo and its position on one of the most congested
sites, anywhere in the world.
Despite this, the teams have carried out some world class
engineering in difficult environments to get us closer to
getting the waste out and into safer storage earlier than
planned.
The work is being carried out by Sellafield Ltd, along with
Bechtel Cavendish Nuclear Solutions and Babcock Marine
Technology.
Preparations have been under way for a number of years, which
involved practising the cutting operation at a full-scale replica
test rig in Rosyth, Scotland.
The six holes are cut at the top of each of the facility’s six
compartments, allowing access to the waste within the silo’s
walls for the first time in 65 years.
Each section is cut away in a single piece and withdrawn into a
containment bag. A containment door is then lowered over the
aperture and closed.
The giant steel doors will provide a safe barrier between the
waste inside the silo and the outside world. Work to remove the
material will start in 2019.
To remove the waste, a crane will extend through the cut holes, a
grabber will then drop down to scoop the waste up, lifting it out
of the container and back through the hole.
It will then be dropped into a specially-designed metal box, for
safe and secure storage in a modern facility.
