Cleanup workers at the former Dounreay fast-reactor site in Scotland are mixing a radioactive liquid with three solids to ensure the material can be placed safely into storage, the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said Monday.
The raffinate was the byproduct of reprocessing of fuel from the Prototype Fast Reactor at Dounreay, which shut down in 1977. A total of 230 cubic meters of the liquid were previously processed at a Dounreay facility, which over the last two years was updated for the solidification project.
The material has been held in tanks for roughly two decades. It will over a five-year period be mixed with cement, pulverized fuel ash, and lime powders to form “a stable solid waste package,” according to an NDA press release.
The first step involves placing 15,000 liters of the solid mix into over 30 drums. In coming months, as many as 100 drums should be filled.
“This is probably our highest single remaining hazard at Dounreay,” Sam Usher, Dounreay waste director, said in the release. “Safely and compliantly creating the first solid waste drums is a huge achievement for the team and a major step forward as we deal with the site’s legacy hazards.”
A new structure will be attached to the facility for storage of the solidified waste. Work on that extension, worth millions of British pounds, is due to start by the end of 2018.
