Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) was transported via underground tunnels into one of 5 above-ground bunkers built between the 1960s and 1980s. Nearly 50 years after these 5 concrete waste bunkers began being built, I have been working as part of a team on emptying the second one. My team has now successfully emptied this bunker of its hazardous contents – 6 weeks ahead of schedule. We used remotely operated vehicles, lifting more than 650 tonnes of radioactive graphite and metallic waste, before packing into specially engineered stainless steel boxes. Hunterston holds the largest inventory of solid Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) in the Magnox fleet, accounting for more than 35% of the 7,500 cubic metre total. The Solid Active Waste Bunker Retrieval (SAWBR) Project was established to retrieve material and empty the bunkers in sequence (bunkers 5, 4, 3, 2, then 1) by breaking through the walls.
NDA 16th June 2016 read more »