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Waste Management

Waste management

The nuclear industry has invested substantial amounts of money in new plants to treat and package waste from reprocessing operations. The wastes are classified into High, Intermediate and Low level waste streams. Discharges from all our sites must follow strict Government authorisations in accordance with international rules.

High-level waste (HLW) is radioactive enough to generate heat. This waste is what remains when the uranium and plutonium have been reprocessed.

Intermediate-level waste (ILW) is far less radioactive than high-level waste. It is made up of such things as fuel element cladding, contaminated equipment and sludge that come from the treatment processes.

Low-level waste (LLW) includes paper towels, clothing and laboratory equipment, which have been used in areas where radioactive materials are used.

Achievements
The Miscellaneous Beta Gamma Waste Store team has achieved 12 years since their last Lost Time Accident. The team's store provides safe and secure storage for Intermediate Level Waste and is the sole facility of its kind in the UK.
HLWP safety performance breaks all previous records.
The workforce within High Level Waste Plants (HLWP) have achieved a fantastic one million hours worked without a Lost Time Accident.
1,000 cubic metres
An important programme in helping to clean up legacy waste, the floc retrieval project has recovered and encapsulated over 1,000 cubic metres of historic waste in the form of sludges in the past three years.

What we do

Image: John Storer and Neil Longfellow
Image: Spent Fuel receipt and storage
Image: Reprocessing
Image: Waste Management
Image: Decommissioning redundant buildings
Image: Major Projects
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