Nuclear Waste being Downgraded
Posted: 12th May 2024
How NWS is making sure the right waste, is in the right place with safe, sustainable and cost effective solutions. Chris Macey, Service Lead for Treatment and Conditioning Services at Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), speaks about how his team is safely diverting huge quantities of nuclear waste away from permanent disposal at the UK’s Low Level Waste (LLW) Repository in Cumbria, saving millions of pounds of taxpayer money and supporting the circular economy by recycling waste. This has been achieved through a range of characterisation and treatment services, ensuring that only wastes which require the protection of an engineered vault are disposed of at the Repository site. In 2022 to 2023, 1689te of metallic waste was treated, 98% of that waste was released for recycling and diverted from the Repository. I’ve been working in the waste services team at Nuclear Waste Services for two years now, but we’ve been running our treatment services for about 15 years. When LLW Repository Ltd was set up, part of the mission was to look after the capacity of the engineered vaults where low level radioactive waste is safely, and permanently disposed. We’ve achieved this, and much more. The UK creates a wide range of hazardous wastes generated by the nuclear industry, ranging from Very Low-Level Waste (VLLW), for example lightly contaminated rubble, all the way up to Higher Activity Waste (HAW), that originates from reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. All of this hazardous waste needs to be managed safely and securely, both now and for the future. More than 90% of the UK’s radioactive waste is Low Level Waste, so our services to safely manage and dispose of this waste are of vital, national importance, as we work to clean up the UK’s nuclear legacy. The creation of a centralised waste services division to provide and manage a ‘One-stop-shop’ for all UK radioactive waste customers has led the way in developing and offering services to the industry. Services which take advantage of alternative waste management routes demonstrating real application of the waste hierarchy and processing wastes sooner into their final safe state. All of these treatment and disposal methods come at a lower cost than placing the waste in our vaults. Firstly, our route to permitted landfill sites which take the very low activity waste. Next, we can burn some of the waste in specialised incinerators. The resulting ashes can go to landfill, equating to 100% diversion from the vault. Another of our treatments is super-compaction, which is a volume reduction technique. The final service is the most environmentally friendly and sustainable process – metallic treatment. We are now utilising this method as much as possible. We work with our suppliers who use a range of special technologies to clear the radioactivity off a range of metals that can be reused and recycled.
Nuclear Waste Services 10th May 2024