U.K.'s Sellafield Nuclear Reprocessing Site Important for Nuclear Plant Decommissioning

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Researched by Protel Associates Limited in alliance with Industrial Info Europe (Galway, Ireland)--The Sellafield nuclear processing site in the U.K. has one of only two commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plants in the world. Sellafield's Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) receives waste nuclear fuel from 34 plants throughout the world.

In the fuel reprocessing process, the metallic outer casing is first stripped away, and the spent fuel is then dissolved in hot nitric acid. This produces uranium (96%), plutonium (1%) and highly radioactive waste (3%). The reusable uranium is turned into a powdered form, processed into fuel pellets, and sent back for use in nuclear reactors. Plutonium can be combined with uranium and turned into mixed-oxide fuel. The waste is turned into a powder and vitrified by incorporating it into borosilicate (Pyrex) glass to produce a pellet that is then sealed inside stainless steel canisters for eventual disposal underground.

Various processes are used at the facility to handle and reprocess materials. These include an ion-exchange abatement plant for aqueous wastes from pile fuel storage ponds, a new high stack for ventilation of effluents from the Sellafield separation area, and the 'Evaporator D project' that will be used to evaporate highly active raffinate produced during reprocessing and to process effluent from the existing waste vitrification plant.

Decommissioning has begun at 25 nuclear reactors in the U.K. One of the first of these reactors was the Berkeley nuclear power station, which contained two 138-megawatt Magnox reactors and was closed for economic reasons in 1989 after 27 years of operation. Defuelling was completed in 1992. The cooling ponds were then drained, cleaned and filled, and the turbine hall was dismantled and demolished. This procedure is fairly typical and will be applied to all facilities.

The Dounreay plant in Scotland provides examples of project opportunities that will be available within the U.K. nuclear reprocessing sector for many years. These include a £100 million ($165 million) intermediate-level waste treatment plant and store, as well as a £215 million ($354.5 million) low-level waste disposal facility. Both contracts will be awarded by mid-2010 and, on completion, will handle radioactive waste generated from Dounreay's decommissioning programme, which runs to 2025.

Fuel for nuclear power stations comes from concentrated uranium that has been made into fuel rods. The average life of a nuclear fuel rod is four years, after which waste products that have built up in the rod make it less efficient. Reprocessing is the chemical operation that separates the useful fuel for recycling from the waste.

For more information on the U.K. nuclear industry see these recent articles published on Industrialinfo.com:

Costain Group Secures $481 Million Contract for Nuclear Waste Disposal at Sellafield and

U.K. Sellafield Site for New Nuclear Plant on Sale.

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