In the UK, radioactive wastes are classified according to the nature and quantity of radioactivity and the heat produced. Intermediate Level Waste can be categorised as high or low dose and high or low fissile.
Remote Handleable Intermediate Level Waste (RHILW), both high and low fissile, requires remote handling by mechanical processes/robots and a high level of shielding in high-integrity stores.
Contact Handleable Intermediate Level Waste (CHILW) presents a lesser requirement for shielding and potential for not all work to be remote; it can be managed and stored in facilities appropriate to its needs at a lower cost.
At Sellafield, low fissile CHILW has historically not been separated out from RHILW but instead stored alongside RHILW in high-integrity stores.
Learning from Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) has demonstrated the benefits of better waste segregation and how this can be applied to ILW – ‘the right waste, in the right package, in the right store’.
The CHILW system requires the use of a new waste package, the Decommissioning CHILW Container (DCC), to collect waste from the decommissioning plants.
The CHILW will be encapsulated, either following consignment from the decommissioning plants or following buffer storage in Lightly Shielded Stores (LSS), in a new encapsulation facility, the Decommissioning Encapsulation Plant (DEP).
The waste (now within the DCC) will be sent for long-term storage in the series of LSS, prior to ultimate disposal to the Geological Disposal Facility (GDF).
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