Sellafield’s newest plant is up and running, supporting the site’s clean-up mission.
Evaporator D has been set to work reducing the volume of Sellafield’s most radioactive waste product – highly active liquor.
The £750m plant is the only evaporator on the site able to process high-level liquid waste created during the clean-out of the Sellafield’s reprocessing plants.
It acts like a giant kettle, reducing the volume of liquor so it can be turned into glass form and safely stored.
The facility was switched on at 8am on 8 December and is going through a 12 month process to prove its capability to regulators.
Once fully operational, Sellafield’s two older evaporators will retire.
Steve Bostock, Sellafield Ltd chief operating officer, said:
“Cleaning up the Sellafield site safely and securely is our mission. Evaporator D is a critical part.
“It will enable us to clean out our former reprocessing plants; no other facility could do this.
“It will also allow us to retire our oldest evaporators. We’ve worked these evaporators hard and they are nearing the end of their useful life.”
Sellafield Ltd operates on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).
Source: NIA UK | D-day as evaporator starts its mission