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What Will We Do With the Low Level Waste From Reactor Decommissioning?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Dr Adam R Meehan ,
Dr Stephen Wilmott ,
Miss Glenda Crockett  and
Dr Nick R Watt
Dr Adam R Meehan
Affiliation:
Magnox Electric Ltd, Berkeley Centre, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, GL13 9PB, UK.
Dr Stephen Wilmott
Affiliation:
Magnox Electric Ltd, Berkeley Centre, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, GL13 9PB, UK.
Miss Glenda Crockett
Affiliation:
Magnox Electric Ltd, Berkeley Centre, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, GL13 9PB, UK.
Dr Nick R Watt
Affiliation:
Magnox Electric Ltd, Berkeley Centre, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, GL13 9PB, UK.
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Abstract

The decommissioning of the UK’s Magnox reactor sites will produce large volumes of low level waste (LLW) arisings. The vast majority of this waste takes the form of concrete, building rubble and redundant plant containing relatively low levels of radioactivity. Magnox Electric Ltd (Magnox) is leading a strategic initiative funded by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to explore opportunities for the disposal of such waste to suitably engineered facilities that might be located on or adjacent to the site of waste arising, if appropriate and subject to regulatory acceptance and stakeholder views. The strategic issues surrounding this initiative are described along with an update of progress with stakeholder consultations in relation to the proposed licensing of the first such facility at Hinkley Point A, which could be viewed as a test case for the development of similar disposal facilities at other nuclear sites in England and Wales.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1107: Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXXI , 2008 , 161
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

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