{"id":94679,"date":"2018-08-10T10:13:06","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T10:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=b86d6fcc116a26165e4519ac6e9688ec"},"modified":"2018-08-10T10:13:06","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T10:13:06","slug":"news-story-a-step-forward-for-sellafields-most-hazardous-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=94679","title":{"rendered":"News story: A step forward for Sellafield\u2019s most hazardous building"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>A waste transfer package has been lifted into the building for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>The 50-tonne package was safely placed onto one of three machines that will begin grabbing waste out of the building\u2019s 22 silo compartments from next year.<\/p>\n<p>Originally constructed as six silos in the 1960\u2019s and then extended three times, MSSS stores magnesium cladding or \u2018swarf\u2019 that was stripped from Magnox fuel prior to reprocessing.<\/p>\n<p>The swarf is stored underwater in the 16 metre-deep silos but over time the magnesium releases heat and hydrogen meaning the facility requires constant management and monitoring.<\/p>\n<p>Since the early 1990\u2019s this type of waste has been immobilised in concrete instead as this makes it more passive and practical to manage.<\/p>\n<p>The radioactive inventory and lack of modern standards in MSSS makes it the most complicated and highest-priority mission in the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority\u2019s estate.<\/p>\n<p>Preparations for removing the 11,000m3 of historic waste from the silos and placing them into safe, modern storage have been over twenty years in the making.<\/p>\n<p>Next year three 360 tonne Silo Emptying Plant (SEP) machines will start reaching in to the silos and removing the waste with a hydraulic grab.<\/p>\n<p>The waste will then be loaded into the shielded transfer packages and safely stored on the Sellafield site until a permanent geological disposal facility is constructed.<\/p>\n<p>Head of Programme for MSSS, Chris Halliwell, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The transfer package is the essential link in the chain to safer storage.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a big moment to see it finally being attached to the SEP machine inside the silo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Never before have these two bits of machinery met inside the place where they\u2019ll be carrying out our biggest job in hazard reduction.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The first transfer package to enter MSSS was manufactured by Workington firm TSP Engineering and is one of nine original packages they have built and modified for Sellafield Ltd.<\/p>\n<p>TSP is currently competing with Cavendish Nuclear to build the next batch of 15 transfer packages; an advanced manufacturing contract worth tens of millions of pounds to British Industry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Work to empty the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS) has taken a significant step forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}