Radioactive waste in England
| Waste type | Volume (cubic metre) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Stocks at 1 April 2007 | Estimated future arisings | Lifetime total once all wastes are packaged | |
| HLW | 1,730 | -646 (1) | 1,420 |
| ILW | 80,700 | 112,000 | 298,000 |
| LLW | 186,000 | 2,670,000 | 2,980,000 |
(1) Future arisings of HLW have negative volumes. This is because Sellafield has reported future arisings of HLW to show that the volume of accumulated waste (liquid plus vitrified product) will fall as liquid waste existing at 1April 2007 and forecast in the future is conditioned to a vitrified product.
Radioactive waste is managed on 26 sites in England, that include:
- operating nuclear power stations at six sites – a Magnox reactor station at Oldbury , Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGR) stations at Dungeness, Hinkley Point, Hartlepool and Heysham, and a Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) station at Sizewell;
- shut down Magnox reactor stations undergoing decommissioning at six sites – Berkeley, Bradwell, Calder Hall, Dungeness, Hinkley Point and Sizewell;
- facilities supporting the civil nuclear fuel cycle at three sites - Capenhurst, Sellafield and Springfields;
- three nuclear research and development sites, where the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is undertaking facility decommissioning and site clean up – Harwell, Windscale and Winfrith;
- the Joint European Torus (JET) fusion facility located at Culham;
- seven sites owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which undertake operations in support of the atomic weapons programme (Aldermaston), the nuclear submarine propulsion programme (Barrow-in-Furness, Derby and HMNB Devonport) and other activities (Donnington, Eskmeals and HMNB Portsmouth);
- the health science company GE Healthcare operates from two sites in England – Amersham and Harwell;
- the site at Sheffield is storing a small quantity of waste from the accidental smelting of radioactive materials in a steel manufacturing plant;
- the national disposal facility for LLW in Cumbria (i.e. the LLWR).
| Site | Location | Activities | Responsible organisation 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aldermaston (AWE Aldermaston including Burghfield) | Berkshire | Research and development, design, manufacturing, servicing and decommissioning of nuclear warheads | MoD |
| Amersham | Buckinghamshire | Produces products containing radioactive materials | GE Healthcare |
| Barrow-in-Furness | Cumbria | Building, testing and commissioning of new nuclear powered submarines | MoD |
| Berkeley Nuclear Licensed Site (NLS) | Gloucestershire | Decommissioning of Magnox reactor power station and research laboratories | NDA |
| Bradwell | Essex | Decommissioning of Magnox reactor power station | NDA |
| Calder Hall | Cumbria | Decommissioning of Magnox reactor power station | NDA |
| Capenhurst | Cheshire | Decommissioning of uranium enrichment plant and radioactive materials storage | NDA |
| Operating uranium enrichment facilities | Urenco | ||
| Culham | Oxfordshire | Operating Joint european Torus (JET) fusion facility 2 | NDA |
| Derby (Raynesway) | Derbyshire | Manufacture of fuel for nuclear powered submarines Development of submarine reactor design. | MoD |
| Devonport (HMNB Devonport) | Devon | Maintenance and support services for UK's operational nuclear submarine squadrons | MoD |
| Donnington | Shropshire | Storage of redundant radioactive equipment | MoD |
| Dungeness | Kent | Dungeness A: Decommissioning of Magnox reactor power station | NDA |
| Dungeness B: Operating AGR power station | British Energy | ||
| Eskmeals | Cumbria | Depleted uranium weapons testing | MoD |
| Hartlepool | Cleveland | Operating AGR power station | British Energy |
| Harwell | Oxfordshire | Decommissioning of nuclear research reactors and other nuclear research facilities | NDA |
| Production of radioisotopes | GE Healthcare | ||
| Heysham | Lancashire | Heysham 1 - Operating AGR power station | British Energy |
| Heysham 2 - Operating AGR power station | British Energy | ||
| Hinkley Point | Somerset | Hinkley Point A - Decommissioning of Magnox reactor power station | NDA |
| Hinkley Point B - Operating AGR power station | British Energy | ||
| LLWR | Cumbria | Operating national LLW disposal site | NDA |
| Oldbury | South Gloucestershire | Operating Magnox reactor power station | NDA |
| Portsmouth (HMNB Portsmouth) | Hampshire | Management of equipment and instrumentation that incorporates radioactive materials | MoD |
| Sellafield | Cumbria | Operating nuclear chemical facilities (spent fuel reprocessing, fuel fabrication, waste treatment) | NDA |
| Sheffield | South Yorkshire | Steel smelting | Minor waste producer |
| Sizewell | Suffolk | Sizewell A - Decommissioning of Magnox reactor power station | NDA |
| Sizewell B - Operating PWR power station | British Energy | ||
| Springfields | Lancashire | Operating nuclear fuel and intermediate products manufacturing | NDA |
| Windscale | Cumbria | Decommissioning of reactors and support facilities | NDA |
| Winfrith | Dorset | Decommissioning of reactors and support facilities | NDA |
(1) The organisation with strategic responsibility for radioactive wastes managed on the site.
(2) Although the Culham site is currently owned and operated by UKAEA, the NDA understands that the part of the site occupied by the JET facility will transfer to NDA ownership from the date when JET operation ceases.
