NDA launches waste container standardisation initiative

A Standard Waste Container Catalogue (SWCC) has been developed collaboratively by Sellafield Ltd and Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), both subsidiaries of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). It defines for the first time a suite of approved container designs to satisfy the needs of waste across differing radioactivity levels.

Until now, radioactive waste containers were often designed and developed by individual Site Licence Companies (SLCs) within the NDA estate, tailored to support specific waste streams, resulting in multiple bespoke container designs.

A standardised approach to containers seeks to enable compatibility with eventual geological disposal, ensuring that packaging produced today will remain suitable for future disposal conditions, avoiding possible complex repackaging operations, Sellafield and NWS said. Cross-site collaboration will be encouraged to look at the potential for containers to be used more easily between facilities, utilising common handling equipment and procedures where possible.

"The catalogue is not seen as an immediate solution to all current container issues faced by site operators but rather part of a long-term strategy enabling more efficient and cost-effective waste management well into the future," Sellafield and NWS said. "The catalogue will be governed by the Sellafield-led Waste Container Management Body (WCMB) who will review any requests for new inclusions."

They added: "Standardisation of container designs and a coordinated approach to managing demand will lead to longer term efficiencies within the supply chain."

"This initiative marks a major step forward in how radioactive waste is managed across our sites and an example of how our strategy development work has resulted in transformational change," said James McKinney, NDA Chief Strategist for Integrated Waste Management. "It also clearly demonstrates how NDA group collaboration is delivering benefits for the whole estate. By standardising container design now, we are helping to reduce long term costs and ensuring the waste we package today remains suitable for long term interim storage and onward management."

Rob Miller, Head of Manufactured Products at Sellafield, added: "The Standard Waste Container Catalogue is a significant step forward for the NDA group and the manufacturing supply chain. It creates a single, consistent set of waste container designs that will reduce duplication, improve value for money, and streamline the procurement and manufacture of containers across all organisations. The development of this catalogue together with the formation of the Waste Container Management Body stands as a strong example of collaboration across the entire NDA group, using expertise from areas of the NDA group to deliver a shared solution."

Emma Tallantire, NWS Packaging Lead, said: "The catalogue will provide visibility of all available packages, encompassing both low-level waste and intermediate-level waste providing benefits around economies of scale and prevention of package proliferation, resulting in cost savings to the estate."