The challenge

One of our biggest challenges at Sellafield is the need to take waste out of our legacy ponds and silos.

These buildings are our most hazardous nuclear facilities and weren’t designed with decommissioning in mind.

The Pile Fuel Storage Pond was built more than 70 years ago, when the site’s purpose was to produce material for nuclear weapons.

The Pile Fuel Storage Pond under construction

Measuring 100 metres long and 25 metres wide and containing approximately 16,000m3 of water, it is the largest open-air radioactive waste pond in the world.

It was designed to receive, store and dismantle irradiated nuclear fuel used in the Windscale Piles – the first reactors to be built at Sellafield.

The building is made up of 2 cooling ponds, 12 decanning bays and 12 withdrawal bays

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