Sellafield Ltd is now carefully reintroducing operational
work on a phased basis after ramping down operations at the
start of the COVID-19 epidemic.
Chief Executive Martin Chown visited the First Generation
Magnox Storage Pond to see first hand the restart of work
preparing for the maintenance of a Skip Handler crane which
will be vital for getting nuclear waste out of the legacy
pond once more work restarts later in the summer.
A nuclear site which normally has more than 8,000 people
working on it was reduced to around 1,500 key workers in
late March as an initial protective measure.
Now the number of workers is being carefully and cautiously
brought back up, with the current restart trajectory
expected to reach 3,000 people on site by mid-June. Initial
plans have imposed a cap of 3,500 on the site at any one
time and then review that situation, to allow people to
more readily socially distance themselves from other
workers.
It means thousands of employees have adapted to working
differently and remotely and the company putting in place a
process of prioritising the work packages where people need
to come back to work.
Three high-profile areas of work have restarted in the last
week, marking a significant step forward in Sellafield Ltd
progressing its core mission of environmental remediation
and safely storing nuclear material.
These are:
- restarting the work on commissioning the Silo Emptying
Plant (SEP2) waste retrievals machine inside our highest
hazard legacy storage facility, the Magnox Swarf Storage
Silo
- restarting the work to repackage cans of plutonium into
new containers. More background on this work available here
- maintenance work on the Skip Handler Crane in the First
Generation Magnox Storage Pond, with similar work starting
next week in its ‘sister’ legacy pond, the Pile Fuel
Storage Pond.
Allied to this have been the recent restart of construction
work on the The Box Encapsulation Plant Product Store
Direct Import Facility (BEPPS-DIF) major project – a key
facility needed to store legacy waste in the future – and
the return of some specialist nuclear designers into
offices.
Of course, all along, around 1,500 key workers have been
doing their vital work to keep the Sellafield site safe and
secure throughout the global crisis.
Sellafield Ltd Chief Executive Martin Chown paid a visit to
the legacy pond to meet those who have been continuing to
go to work throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and learn more
about the safety measures being put in place following the
risk assessment work the business has been doing to allow
people to work safely.
Martin also visited the BEPPS-DIF site, the first of our
project construction sites to bring people back in.
The site was used as a test bed for a number of safety
initiatives designed to keep people safe, with learning
from that restart used in further project construction
restarts over coming months.
Martin said:
I really enjoyed my time spent on the major construction
sites and within our nuclear operations,
The preparations we have made in plants enable everyone
to come back to work with confidence. I was most
impressed with the commitment and positive attitude from
all of our staff, who are an asset to our business.
