Very Low Level Waste Service
25th April 2012
Andrea Borwick – WRG
Working to sustain the next century...
Introduction
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This service is offered by Waste Recycling Group Limited (WRG); who own and
operate many conventional landfill sites across the UK.
EnergySolutions (EU) Ltd are a key partner and provide radioactive waste
expertise and technical advice for the project.
Together these two companies have a unique partnership; which has developed a
disposal route for high volume very low level waste (HV-VLLW) to the Lillyhall
Landfill Site, Workington, Cumbria.
Working to sustain the next century...
The Companies
Waste Recycling Group (WRG) • A leading UK waste management and energy recovery company
• Part of Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas; an international construction and
services group.
• Operates over 40 operational landfill sites throughout the UK.
• WRG is committed to working with its local authority partners, regulators and industry
customers to respond to often complex and far-reaching waste management strategies,
to react to changes to regulation from the UK and Europe and to meet demanding waste
management targets.
• WRG committed to stakeholder engagement programmes.
• Each year WRG receives, recycles and disposes of 10 million tonnes of household,
commercial and industrial waste from across the UK.
Working to sustain the next century...
The Companies
EnergySolutions (ES) –
• EnergySolutions is an international nuclear services company and are world leaders
in the safe recycling, processing and disposal of radioactive waste.
• In the US, EnergySolutions owns and operates several large radioactive waste
management facilities, including the Clive low level waste (LLW) disposal facility in
Utah, the largest commercial LLW disposal facility in the US.
• ES has safely consigned in excess of 100,000 tonnes of VLLW waste to
conventional landfill without any significant impacts on the environment.
• ES has an established presence in the UK nuclear sector and manages 22 Magnox
reactors across 10 sites on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, as well
as providing a wide range of services across the industry.
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Lillyhall Landfill Facility
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The Lillyhall facility is both a non-hazardous and a stable non-reactive hazardous
landfill situated 22 miles from the LLWR and 16 miles from Sellafield, on the West
Coast of Cumbria.
The site is underlain by clays which provide an effective natural barrier to the
migration of radionuclides.
HV-VLLW waste will be deposited into Cell 6C which has been constructed
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Lillyhall Facility
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The site operates under two Environmental Permits GP3037SJ & CD7914 and Planning
Permission 2/93/9033, as well as Article 37 permissions
The site has Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) for any delivery of HV-VLLW.
We expect HV-VLLW, will be transported as either “exempt” or will be packaged and
transported as “excepted packages” in accordance with the “The Carriage of Dangerous
Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009 (2009 No.1348)
and the current edition of ADR.
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VLLW Control System
Stage 1
Establishment of radiological waste acceptance criteria for the Lillyhall Landfill Site.
Stage 2
Provision of information on the waste streams that a consignor is seeking to dispose of at
the Lillyhall Landfill Site, and the associated management arrangements, an initial audit of
the consignor by WRL and the assessment of acceptability in principle.
Stage 3
Provision of information by the consignor on specific consignments of waste to be disposed
and agreement for delivery.
Stage 4
Delivery and receipt of consignments.
Stage 5
The overall system within WRL for the management of HV-VLLW disposals, in particular
the records and associated spreadsheets.
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Waste Acceptance Criteria
1. Volume
• remaining disposal capacity of about 1.5 million m3
• no more than 26,000 m3 of the total annual disposals will be used for HV-VLLW
2. Radioactivity
• total activity levels will not exceed 4 MBq te-1
• Tritium will not exceed 40 MBq te-1
• The ESC and the environmental permit also require conformance with the sites
radionuclide-specific values which are managed by the sum of fractions system,
(for activity concentrations for the disposal cell and total activities for all past and
future disposals is < 1)
3. Non Radiological Characteristics
Standard landfill requirements for waste acceptability will be applied
Working to sustain the next century...
Contact Details
Thank you for listening.
For further information please contact Andrea Borwick
Development Project Manager
Waste Recycling Group
Tel 01900 602205
E-mail andrea.borwick@wrg.co.uk
Working to sustain the next century...