The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

21 January 2010

 

The programme of returning solid Highly Active Waste (HAW) from Sellafield to overseas customers, announced in September last year, began this week.

The first stage was the transport of a single 113te flask, containing 28 stainless steel containers of solid HAW from the Sellafield site, on a specially constructed rail wagon, to the port of Barrow, ready for shipment to Japan. The waste involved arises from the reprocessing of Japanese customers' used nuclear fuel at Sellafield.

The flask is then transferred on to a Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd (PNTL) vessel prior to its departure for Japan, with the voyage due to be completed by the end of March this year.

Ian Hudson the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's Sellafield Programme Director said: 

"The commencement of this first return of high level waste to overseas customers is a significant milestone in meeting our contractual commitments and delivering on Government Policy. The delivery of this programme is a prime example of high quality team working across the NDA estate, both within Sellafield Ltd and our subsidiary companies INS Ltd and PNTL Ltd."

The transportation to Japan will be delivered by International Nuclear Services and PNTL. PNTL has operated ships that travelled for more than five million miles without any incident involving the release of radioactivity and in 2007 PNTL completed a programme of 12 similar HAW transports to Japan for the French nuclear industry.