{"id":97516,"date":"2018-11-14T09:55:45","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T09:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=c2eddab839d703718e195a0d6bc2579b"},"modified":"2018-11-14T09:55:45","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T09:55:45","slug":"press-release-new-era-at-sellafield-as-thorp-reprocessing-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=97516","title":{"rendered":"Press release: New era at Sellafield as Thorp reprocessing ends"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Opened in 1994, Thorp is one of only two commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plants in the world.<\/p>\n

It has reprocessed more than 9,000 tonnes of fuel from 30 customers in nine countries around the world. It generated an estimated \u00a39bn in revenue.<\/p>\n

The last batch of fuel to be reprocessed began its journey through the plant at 11.32am on Friday 9 November.<\/p>\n

There will be no redundancies as a result of the switch-off. All employees in roles no longer required have been offered alternative jobs in the business.<\/p>\n

Thorp will continue to serve the UK until the 2070s as a storage facility for spent fuel.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sellafield is being reinvented as a centre of expertise for nuclear clean-up.<\/p>\n

This will unlock 100 years\u2019 worth of opportunity for the site\u2019s workforce, supply chain, and community.<\/p>\n

Paul Foster, Sellafield Ltd\u2019s Chief Executive Officer, said:<\/p>\n

\n

As we look forward to an exciting future, we want to celebrate the best of our past.<\/p>\n

The end of reprocessing at Thorp is one of the most important events in Sellafield\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Thorp has been a West Cumbrian success story. It has delivered jobs, skills, pride, and prestige.<\/p>\n

Our community came together in the fight to get it built, through the \u2018Trust Us\u2019 campaign.<\/p>\n

Together we completed one of the largest and most complex construction projects ever undertaken in Europe.<\/p>\n

And during 24 years of operations, we safely reprocessed 9,331 tonnes of fuel from 30 customers in nine countries.<\/p>\n

We helped to keep the lights on in the UK and around the world and generated \u00a39bn in revenue for the UK.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m immensely proud of Thorp\u2019s contribution and I\u2019d like to thank the workforce for their unwavering dedication and professionalism throughout a period of unprecedented change.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Thorp (or the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant) is one third of a mile long.<\/p>\n

It dominates a huge central strip of the Sellafield site and is the largest structure on the site.<\/p>\n

Costing \u00a31.8bn to build, it was paid for by its future customers.<\/p>\n

The decision to cease reprocessing was taken in 2012 in response to a significant downturn in demand.<\/p>\n

The international market for reprocessing has shifted significantly since Thorp\u2019s construction, with the majority of customers now opting to store rather than reprocess their fuel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The site\u2019s Thorp plant has completed its 24-year mission to reprocess spent nuclear fuel from around the world.<\/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\/97516"}],"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=97516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}