Officials from EM headquarters and Savannah River Site (SRS) visited the United Kingdom’s Sellafield and Dounreay sites this summer to explore how the U.S. and U.K. can benefit from sharing expertise in nuclear waste cleanup to reduce costs, improve safety and increase efficiency. Stacy Charboneau, EM Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Field Operations, and SRS Manager Jack Craig gained insight into Sellafield’s highest priority cleanup efforts: the Legacy Ponds and Silos Program, comprised of four main plants once used to store waste and spent fuel prior to reprocessing — the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond, Pile Fuel Storage Pond, Pile Fuel Cladding Silo and Magnox Swarf Storage Silos. “I have been impressed by the progress being made at both Sellafield and Dounreay. The complexity of the cleanup is similar to DOE’s even though the sites are much smaller in area. It is clear that DOE and NDA have a lot to learn from one another as we go forward,”
US DOE 31st Aug 2016 read more »