Since 1959 about 1 million cubic metres of LLW from the nuclear power industry, hospitals, research establishments and the defence programmes have been sent to the LLW Repository in Cumbria (the LLWR).
Up to 1995 about 800,000 cubic metres of waste has been disposed by tipping into trenches that have been capped off.
Now, suitable LLW is supercompacted to minimise its volume. In this process drums or boxes of waste are compacted under high pressure of up to 2,000 tonnes per square metre.
A LLW drum before compaction
A LLW drum after compaction
The waste is placed in large metal containers, similar to shipping containers. These are then filled with cement and placed in concrete-lined vaults at the LLWR. To date about 8,300 containers have been produced. The total vault space occupied by LLW is about 200,000 cubic metres. Until the vaults are capped off with an engineered cover, the waste is regarded as stored.
LLW containers in the LLWR Grouting Facility
LLWR Grouting Facility
About 34,000 cubic metres of LLW disposed in the past at Dounreay are to be retrieved, packaged and consigned to a planned new site LLW disposal facility.
A small fraction of the total volume of LLW cannot be disposed of in this way, due principally to its specific content, and so will need to be disposed of as ILW. This waste is stored pending a disposal route is available (go to How is radioactive waste managed now - Intermediate Level Waste).
Some wastes with very low activity are routinely sent to specific landfill sites for disposal.
