Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd -New treatment plant

New treatment plant

Intermediate-level waste exists at Dounreay in the form of solid items, liquids and sludges.

A key element of the site closure programme is to get all this waste into a form that makes it safe for long-term storage or disposal by 2025.

This will be done by mixing the waste with cement in steel drums or boxes that can then be stacked in secure, shielded stores at the site.

This will done using a remotely-operated process line enclosed by thick walls and windows to shield the operators from the radiation.

One plant - the cementation plant - is already doing this with liquid waste from the reprocessing of research reactor fuel.

DSRL identified a need for another plant to deal with the other liquid wastes from the reprocessing of fast reactor fuel as well as the solid junk currently stored loose in drums at the present time.

Cementation trials using mock waste have been carried out and confirmed the chemical feasibility of managing the rest of the liquid waste this way.

The new plant, known as D3900, would take some of the solid intermediate-level waste that is currently stored loose in drums in above-ground stores. It would be mixed with cement to produce conditioned waste packages – 500-litre drums and 3m3 steel boxes.

Attached to the new facility would be a large store where the conditioned waste will be kept. The store would have a design life of 100 years and remain in place beyond 2025 pending a national policy for the management of this waste.

Lifetime costs of this plant were estimated to be in the region of £215 million.

Planning permission has been granted by Highland Council.

In March 2010, DSRL announced a delay to this project until the conclusion of the NDA competition for Dounreay. Click here to read the announcement.