Milestone reached in removal of liquid waste

摘要

Sellafield Ltd., the company in charge of decommissioning the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, England, announced on February 20 that it has reached a milestone in the cleanup of the site with the removal of 2 million liters (about 528,344 gallons) of radioactive liquid from the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS) facility. Sellafield Ltd. is preparing the MSSS for decommissioning by removing and treating the solid and liquid waste stored at the facility. Built in the 1960s as part of the site's Magnox fuel reprocessing activities, the MSSS provided underwater storage for irradiated Magnox fuel cladding, known as swarf, as well as miscellaneous radioactive waste from other sources. Initially constructed with six wet silos, the MSSS facility was extended three times to allow for increased storage, and by 1983, when the final round of construction was completed, it included 22 silos. According to Sellafield Ltd., the de- commissioning of the facility represents one of the site's most significant challenges, and managing the liquid waste is the biggest liq- uid effluent treatment challenge among the company's projects.