Reprocessing ending at United Kingdom’s Sellafield Magnox complex

Spent fuel reprocessing operations will cease next month and work will shift totally to cleanup at the Sellafield Magnox plant in northern England, according to a recent press release from the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Sellafield Ltd.

Since 1964, the plant has reprocessed about 55,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan, according to the May 17 press release.

The last of about a dozen Magnox nuclear power stations closed in 2015. Spent fuel from the UK’s current fleet of advanced gas-cooled nuclear power stations will continue to be sent for storage at Sellafield, according to the press release.

“Sellafield can now move from the reprocessing phase of its life into a future focused on decommissioning and clean-up,” David Peattie, CEO of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), said in the release.

The current workforce of more than 10,000 should remain steady over a two-year operational clean-out phase, Sellafield Ltd CEO Martin Chown said in the press release. During that time, any worker whose job is eliminated will be redeployed to other work within the company, Chown said.

In the fall of 2019, NDA took over full ownership of Magnox from Cavendish Fluor Partnership. About two years ago, a national audit indicated the final cost of decommissioning Magnox reactors could run up to £8.7 billion, or almost $11 billion, up from £3.8 billion, or more than $4.75 billion, projected in 2014.