The operator of the United Kingdom’s national low-level radioactive waste disposal site said this week it has filed an application for construction of three additional disposal vaults.
LLW Repository Ltd. said vaults would be used to dispose of waste in "specially grouted containers." The company noted that it has also recently received authorization from the U.K. Environment Agency to continue waste disposal at the site near the village of Drigg in West Cumbria.
If approved, construction of the first vault could begin in 2016 and be completed in four years, according to a LLWR press release. The application also seeks approval for stacking waste containers higher in an existing vault and for disposal of containers in a vault currently only approved for storage.
LLWR Managing Director Dennis Thompson expressed hope in the release that the planning application would be approved in early 2016, "and we will then be in a position to press ahead."
The company ultimately aims to build 14 vaults at the site. "We plan to develop the site to its full capacity, which will allow us to accomodate all the forecasted low level waste arisings well in to the next century," Thompson said.