The UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has announced that it will work with the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to immobilise the UK-owned civil separated plutonium inventory at Sellafield.
In a UK statement the government body said, “Continued, indefinite, long-term storage leaves a burden of security risks and proliferation sensitivities for future generations to manage. It is the Government’s objective to put this material beyond reach, into a form which both reduces the long-term safety and security burden during storage and ensures it is suitable for disposal in a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). Implementing a long-term solution for plutonium is essential to dealing with the UK’s nuclear legacy and leaving the environment safer for future generations.”
Geological disposal means permanently placing radioactive waste in a specially designed facility involving a vast network of tunnels between 200m and 1,000m underground. The design of the facility and its contents, combined with the properties of the surrounding rock, provide multiple barriers that contain the radioactivity and prevent harmful quantities from reaching the human environment. The depth of the facility protects the waste from effects at the surface, such as future climate change, surface erosion, and human activities.
Since 2011, NDA has been carrying out substantial technical, deliverability and economic analysis to identify the preferred option for a long-term disposition solution, including options for immobilisation and reuse. The outcome of this work recommended immobilisation as the preferred way forward to put the material beyond reach soonest and with greatest delivery confidence.
Following further development work the NDA will select a preferred technology for immobilisation of the plutonium as a product suitable for long-term storage and subsequently disposal in a GDF.
Organisations involved in the delivery of this work will include the NDA, in particular Sellafield Ltd and Nuclear Waste Services, the UK National Nuclear Laboratory and the wider supply chain.
“We expect that around the end of the decade following Government approval the NDA and Sellafield will begin delivery of the major build programme of plutonium disposition infrastructure. This programme is expected to support thousands of skilled jobs during the multidecade design, construction and operational period.”
The NDA group has welcomed the UK Government policy saying it will continue progressing research and development work to identify the preferred technology for immobilisation, converting the material to an even safer and more stable form ready for final disposal in a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF).
David Peattie, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Group CEO, said: “We welcome the Government’s policy decision on the future immobilisation of plutonium, paving the way for significant investment in West Cumbria. It will open up opportunities in areas including research and development, project planning, construction, engineering, and operations.”
Organisations involved in the delivery of this work will include the NDA group, and in particular Sellafield Ltd and Nuclear Waste Services, the United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory and the wider supply chain.
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