Radioactive Waste Management
Welcome to the Radioactive Waste Management Website
This project is being conducted on behalf of Nirex UK, the company currently being charged with the task of providing a long-term solution to the management of radioactive waste in the UK. This includes both legacy waste and waste currently being produced from power generation and weapons decomissioning.
To date, Nirex has developed the Phased Geological Repository Concept (PGRC), which involves storing all forms of radioactive waste in underground storage vaults. The type of waste concerned with this project is unshielded intermediate level waste (UILW) and low level waste and this is stored in a variety of steel packages. The overall process of the concept involves transferring waste packages from surface storage to the underground vaults via a drift over a period of approximately 50 years. After the vaults reach capacity, the repository will be kept open for a monitoring period of up to 300 years, during which it will be possible to closely monitor and, if needs be, repair or repackage the waste packages. This phased approach to the design will allow future generations to make decisions regarding final disposal of the waste. When it is eventually deemed safe to close the repository, the vaults will be filled in and sealed off so that the waste is isolated from the outside world through both engineered and geological barriers.
We are responsible for generating conceptual designs for an inspection and overpacking/repackaging cell that will allow the packages to be inspected during this initial monitoring period. This will allow regular inspection and also inspection of specific packages identified by outside authorities.
