Waste Vitrification Plant (B355)

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In 1991 the Waste Vitrification Plant (WVP), which seals high-level radioactive waste in glass, was opened. In this plant, liquid wastes are mixed with glass and melted in a furnace, which when cooled forms a solid block of glass. The plant has three process lines and is based on the French AVM procedure. Principal item is an inductively heated melting furnace, in which the calcined waste is merged with glass frit (glass beads of 1 to 2 mm in diameter). The melt is placed into waste containers, which are welded shut, their outsides decontaminated and then brought into air-cooled storage facilities.

This storage consists of 800 vertical storage tubes, each capable of storing ten containers. The total storage capacity is 8000 containers, and 5000 containers have been stored to 2010. Vitrification should ensure safe storage of waste in the UK for the middle to long term.

Highly Active Liquors (HAL) is classed as high level waste and is a by-product of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. It is treated at Sellafield in the vitrification plant where it is converted into a solid stable form for transport and long term storage.

Vitrification involves drying the liquid waste to a powder, mixing it with glass and heating it to a temperature of around 1,200 degrees Celsius. The molten mixture is poured into stainless steel containers and allowed to solidify. The vitrified waste is then placed into a specially engineered Vitrified Product Store pending final disposal in the UK or return to its country of origin.

Returning this waste to overseas customers fulfils contractual obligations and also UK government policy, which states that the waste from reprocessing contracts signed since 1976 should be returned to the country that benefited from the reprocessed fuel.

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