The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

 

Waste metals with low levels of radioactivity are generally destined for the UK's purpose-built repository near the village of Drigg in Cumbria.

However, large quantities of contaminated material are now being stripped of the radioactive content and recycled as valuable scrap metal, suitable for a wide variety of everyday industrial uses.

The Studsvik Metal Recycling Facility (MRF) at Lillyhall in Cumbria received its first consignments of contaminated metals in September 2009 and was able to recycle more than 95% of the material back into the scrap metal market. Less than 5% of the original volume was packed and made ready for disposal at the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR).

The potential savings for the taxpayer and longevity of the LLWR are significant, while the environmental impact of metals extraction is reduced and finite natural resources preserved for longer. Importantly, the facility assists Low Level Waste producers in applying Government policy on waste reduction and recycling.

The £6 million facility, housed in a former engineering workshop, is the first commercial venture of its kind in the UK, and the first to receive a nuclear site licence for 20 years. Studsvik, however, has been operating similar plants in Sweden for many years, and also has plants in the US. The technology is straightforward and well-proven: Industrial cutting, shot-blasting to decontaminate and compaction.

 

Much of the material, around 80%, comes from the NDA's operating and decommissioning sites, while private sector companies such as British Energy, Rolls-Royce, Babcock Marine and others provide the remainder of the business. Some 20 tonnes a week pass through the facility, totalling approx 1,000 tonnes annually, with the potential to increase as demand grows. Studsvik estimates that there are half a million tonnes of lightly contaminated metal waste in the UK that can be treated, recycled and re-used.

Facility Manager Mike McMullen, having spent 20 years with UKAEA and latterly Sellafield on the Windscale site, has first-hand experience of the nuclear industry, especially in decommissioning and the production of metallic LLW. He says the facility offers a viable and proven alternative route to the direct disposal to LLWR of significant volumes of low level metallic wastes and is an exciting environmental development for the nuclear industry.

Rigorous checks and safeguards accompany all stages of the process, meeting the stringent criteria of the regulators, including the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, Environment Agency and Office for Civil Nuclear Security.

 

The material is inspected on arrival, its weight and radioactive content recorded, then checked against the customer's submitted paperwork. Once the material has been accepted for processing, the initial personal protection required for the handling team is standard industrial overall, gloves and footwear. The size reduction method utilised may then determine the requirement to wear additional personal protective equipment.

The length of time in processing a consignment can vary and is dependent on the physical characteristics and complexity of the waste items. Further measurement and testing is carried out before the waste can be classified as exempt in accordance with current legal requirements for release to the scrap metal market.