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Magnox Swarf Storage Silos Facility

United Kingdom / England / Seascale /
 nuclear reprocessing site  Add category

The Magnox Swarf Storage Silos at Sellafield is one of the site’s four Legacy Pond and Silo facilities. Focus is on safely decommissioning these buildings as part of the hazard and risk reduction programme.

The Magnox type nuclear reactor was the first type to generate nuclear electricity in the UK. Including Calder Hall at Sellafield a total of eleven Magnox power stations were commissioned during the 1950s, 60s and early 70s. In support of the growing contribution of electricity generated by the Magnox power stations, the Magnox Swarf Storage Silos Facility was built at Sellafield to accommodate the swarf waste produced by the Magnox fuel decanning operations. The cladding swarf was removed from the fuel prior to reprocessing.

By the early 1990s, technological developments meant that ‘wet storage’ of Magnox swarf was no longer seen as the best solution. Dry waste, immobilised in discrete containers offered positive advantages: it becomes more passive and much more practical to manage. Therefore the Magnox Encapsulation Plant was constructed at Sellafield to receive dry Magnox swarf, encapsulate it in cement and seal it in stainless steel drums. The Magnox Swarf Storage Silos received Magnox fuel cladding from the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond and the Fuel Handling Plant along with a range of other items of intermediate level waste. The swarf was transported in purpose built flasks and tipped into the silo compartments.

www.sellafieldsites.com/operations/risk--hazard-reducti...
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Coordinates:   54°25'19"N   3°29'50"W
This article was last modified 12 years ago