Sellafield, Plutonium Separation

July 18 it officially stopped operations, marking the end of the plant’s
operational history that first began in 1964. It is now entering a new era of
clean up and decommissioning. Over its more than half decade in operation, it
received and reprocessed nearly 55,000 tonnes of spent (or used) nuclear fuel
from power stations across the country, and from further afield including Italy
and Japan. That allowed the UK’s 11 Magnox power stations to keep low carbon
electricity flowing to homes and businesses in England, Scotland, and Wales. In
June, staff at the plant safely reprocessed the final box of spent fuel from
the UK’s fast reactor programme being stored in the plant’s ponds. The UK’s
fast reactor, at Dounreay, was built during the 1950s when there was a
worldwide shortage of uranium for electricity generation. It became the world’s
first fast reactor to provide electricity to a national grid before shutting
down in 1977. Fast reactors came to an end in the UK in the 1980s, but the
programme left behind a legacy of spent fuel with a unique chemical
composition. This remained at Dounreay, on the north coast of Scotland, for 35
years until the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and nuclear regulators agreed
it could be brought to Sellafield for storage and reprocessing. Reprocessing
the final box of Dounreay fuel being held at the Magnox plant marks the
completion of a 10-year programme. It was important to reprocess the fuel to
minimise the amount requiring future dry storage. The programme was a
collaborative effort across the NDA Group, involving teams at Dounreay,
Sellafield Ltd and Nuclear Transport Solutions.

In Cumbria 8th
Aug 2022