3 Apr (NucNet): Production is slowly being ramped up at British Nuclear Group’s thermal oxide reprocessing plant (Thorp) at Sellafield – three years after the plant was shut down, Sellafield has confirmed.
The restart of reprocessing got under way on the evening of 16 March. The reprocessing comprised of UK advanced gas cooled reactor fuel and light water reactor fuel from overseas.
“Production at the plant is being increased slowly, as is normal after a shutdown, in order to safely bring the plant back into full operation,” said a Thorp spokeswoman.
Fuel shearing, the first main stage in reprocessing, had begun on 28 January 2008 but was halted after a lift which takes the fuel from the feed pond to the shear cave failed. However, all safety systems performed as designed, in particular shock absorbers which protected the fuel.
An investigation confirmed that metal elevator ropes had failed and replacements were installed as were shock absorbers.
Thorp received permission to re-enter operation in January 2007, but has had limited throughput due to a lack of evaporator capacity. A new evaporator was installed towards the end of 2007, replacing the aging medium-active salt-free evaporator.
Thorp was shut down in April 2005 following an incident which led to 83 cubic metres of dissolver liquor (fuel dissolved in nitric acid) leaking from a fractured primary containment pipe into the secondary containment of the feed clarification cell.
- by John Shepherd
>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)
Final Preparations Under Way For Thorp Restart (News No. 7, 10 January 2007)
Further Delays Possible At Thorp, Says UK Government (News in Brief No. 11, 18 June 2007)
New Evaporator For Sellafield’s Thorp (World Nuclear Review No. 51, 21 December 2007)
