Return to sender, Sellafield waste sent back

Work to prepare high-level waste for return to overseas customers is complete.

The work is part of the closing out of commercial reprocessing contracts. Sellafield received spent nuclear fuel from around the world to be reprocessed at its Thorp plant and waste created during the process remains the property of overseas customers who are contractually obliged to take it back.

Before it’s returned, Sellafield vitrifies the highly active liquor waste, which is then packaged into metal containers and ‘pre-attributed’ at Sellafield’s Residue Export Facility. This means it’s weighed, cleaned, inspected, and monitored for gamma radiation, and then set down for storage.

The work began in 2008. In total, 1,840 containers have been prepared and cleaned. More than half have been sent back to customers in Japan, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The remaining containers will be sent back to Japan, Germany and Italy over the next six years. Japan is the biggest customer, with half of all containers returning there.

Sellafield’s vitrification plant will continue to operate into the 2030s to manage the UK’s inventory of highly active liquor.