Sellafield Decommissioning Programme: Progress Update

In 1999 the UK government announced a step change in the strategy for the delivery of the UK civil nuclear clean-up programme. BNFL has responded to the Governments announcement by changing the strategic direction and increasing the priority on remediation activities across the Company. BNFL has extensive experience in decommissioning nuclear facilities having undertaken remediation and decommissioning operations on BNFL sites for many years, encompassing a wide range of projects including reactors, fuel cycle plants and Research and Development facilities. This paper describes the challenges posed by, and the progress made, on some of the range of decommissioning projects undertaken on the Sellafield site as part of its decommissioning and remediation portfolio. These decommissioning operations cover a variety of redundant fuel cycle facilities ranging in size and complexity in both beta gamma and alpha contamination environments utilising manual and remote decommissioning techniques to systematically and progressively reduce the hazard on the site.