A 132-canister shipment of highly active nuclear waste departed the United Kingdom on Thursday and is en route to Japan, according to the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
The five-flask transport, loaded aboard the Pacific Grebe nuclear transport vessel, is set to arrive in Japan in the second half of October, as the regulator continues cleanup efforts at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria. This is the sixth such shipment for the NDA’s Vitrified Residue Returns program, according to an NDA announcement, which noted that it is also the 18th such shipment from Europe to Japan since 1995. The Vitrified Residue Returns’ goal is to return foreign-owned waste stored in the U.K. to its country of origin.
Details of the route, which does not include any other scheduled stops, will be withheld for several weeks for security reasons. Vitrified residue, which is the physical form of highly active waste, is a solution of radioactive waste and molten glass mixed in a stainless steel canister that cools and forms an insoluble glass block.
The U.K. has multiple commercial reprocessing contracts with Japanese utilities, in which the customers agree to take back nuclear waste in vitrified form. This reprocessing occurs at the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant at Sellafield, where unused uranium, which can be used to manufacture new fuel, is separated from spent nuclear fuel rods, creating small amounts of high-level nuclear waste.
Sellafield spokesman Matt Legg said by email Thursday that reprocessing contracts with foreign customers are subject to commercial confidentiality, so he did not disclose the monetary value of the work.
First Pile Fuel Cladding Silo Door Arrives
In a separate effort, the first of six 12.4-ton stainless steel doors — which will serve as access points for waste retrievals at one of Sellafield’s most hazardous buildings, the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo – has arrived, according to an NDA announcement Wednesday.
The silo contains waste from nuclear-weapons production activities dating to the 1940s.
The six silo doors are scheduled to be installed by the end of the year and ready for waste retrievals starting in 2020. According to NDA, the doors weigh as much as 150 “grown men” and stand 7 meters tall and 4 meters wide. The first door was successfully lifted into a 40-ton, 9-meter wide frame on the side of the building after arriving in early August, the announcement said.
“This marks a massive step in one of the highest priority nuclear clean-up jobs in the UK,” NDA Chief Operating Officer Pete Lutwyche said in a prepared statement. “The difficulty of lifting such enormous pieces of steel on one of the most congested nuclear sites in the world cannot be underestimated. This milestone is yet another sign that we are making real, tangible progress towards clearing away the hazards from the UK’s early nuclear industry and making the UK a safer place as a result.”
“This is our most visible sign yet on the Sellafield site of our commitment and drive to deliver the ‘early retrievals’ approach which is leading to a simpler, quicker, safer and more efficient way of getting the waste out of this legacy facility,” Pile Fuel Cladding Silo program chief Gary Snow said in a statement.
