Legacy ponds and silos

Situated on the North West coast of England, Sellafield is the most hazardous nuclear industrial complex in Western Europe. 

The site stores more radioactive waste per square metre than any other nuclear facility in the world. 

A significant inventory of this radioactive waste is stored within four historic legacy ponds and silos across the site. 

Due to the age and condition of these facilities they are each subject to increased regulatory oversight.

The Magnox Swarf Storage Silo, Pile Fuel Cladding Silo and First Generation Magnox Storage Pond have been assigned a 'significantly enhanced' regulatory attention level and the Pile Fuel Storage Pond an 'enhanced' attention level.

Ensuring the waste is safely and efficiently removed from all four of these ageing facilities is both a national and an ONR priority.

Originally constructed in the 1940s, 50s and 60s these facilities - two ponds and two concrete silos - no longer meet the safety requirements that are required today and present some of the most difficult decommissioning challenges - not just in the UK - but in the world. 

In a significant step forward in reducing the long term hazard and risk at the site, retrievals have now commenced from all four facilities. 

Reaching this point has taken considerable time and planning, but through our enabling approach, we have worked with Sellafield and others in the G6 to remove blockers to progress and ensure solutions are fit for purpose in meeting the requirements of the law efficiently and effectively. This enabling approach has allowed Sellafield Ltd to commence this important work of removing waste.

Once the waste from the ponds and silos has been removed, it is placed into specially designed boxes and transported to more modern facilities on the site where it will remain until a geological disposal facility becomes available.

Removal of the full waste inventory from the four facilities is expected to take many decades to complete.