As a consequence of over 50 years of Magnox reprocessing, Sellafield site is in possession of significant quantities of Magnox sludge. This sludge material is the by-product of corrosion of the magnesium based Magnox metal that clads the Magnox fuel elements. Retrievals and processing of this material poses a significant challenge as corrosion of Magnox metal has occurred under a variety of conditions and over a significant period of time, in a variety of locations. Devising processes to treat heterogeneous materials offers a significant challenge to identify technologies with robust envelopes of acceptance, to effectively operate together. This is further compounded by difficulties defining test programmes and materials for testing that will provide assurance that nonradioactive testing is suitably representative or bounding. An overview of the significant body of work undertaken to process Sellafield's Magnox sludge is provided, from the thousands of commercially sensitive reports generated over the past five decades. This covers the sampling, characterisation, strategy and process evolution, technology development and test materials.
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