New waste treatment facility

Posted: 13th March 2022

Plans to jointly develop a state-of-the-art advanced materials treatment facility in the UK have been announced by Westinghouse Electric Company and Perma-Fix Environmental Services. To be built at Westinghouse’s Springfields site, the facility will expand waste treatment capabilities for the European nuclear market. The new facility will incorporate the Perma-Fix Bulk Processing Unit (BPU), a large, refractory lined oven designed to treat a wide range of low and intermediate-level radioactive materials. The BPU accepts a broad range of material types (including solids and liquids, oils, resins, sludges, slurries and wastewater) while reducing waste volume by 30 to 100 times, which meets the waste acceptance criteria of European disposal facilities. The BPU – which has a throughput capacity of 2-3 metric tonnes per day – also eliminates the risk of cross-contamination. Perma-Fix – established in 1990 – owns and operates three nuclear licensed and authorised radioactive waste treatment facilities in the USA that currently treat more than 50,000 metric tonnes per year from international waste generators, the US Department of Energy, the US Department of Defense, nuclear reactors and nuclear research facilities. World Nuclear News 8th March 2022  https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/New-UK-waste-treatment-facility-planned