West Cumbria Sites Stakeholder Group

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UKAEA Windscale

Windscale is the most northern of the four sites in England operated by UKAEA and is located on the west coast of Cumbria and just a few miles from the Lake District National Park . The Windscale Site, which is an island licensed site within the Sellafield licensed site, covers an area of approximately 14 hectares and contains over 50 buildings.

Location of Windscale

The main facilities remaining on the site are as follows:

Piles 1 and 2 - comprises two graphite moderated, air-cooled reactors and associated facilities which were constructed in the late 1940s. The complex became operational in 1950 and both Piles were operated until a fire in Pile 1 in October 1957. Both are currently being prepared for decommissioning.
Windscale Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor (WAGR) - an industrial scale model for the UK AGR power stations which operated from 1963 until 1981. The project is being used to demonstrate decommissioning and waste packaging techniques to support future decommissioning of Magnox and AGR reactors.
The Fuel Examination facility - consists of a suite of shielded caves, connected to the WAGR facility. The caves currently contain remaining operational wastes which are being repacked and removed as a precursor to decommissioning the caves.
B13 Facility - a strategically important post-irradiation examination (PIE) facility. UKAEA provide the management and control of the facility during tenant commercial operations that serve the nuclear industry. Facilities in the adjoining building of B14 will undergo post operational clean out by the tenant before being decommissioned.

History

The original Windscale site was established in the late 1940s on a site previously operated by the Ministry of Supply. The initial purpose was to produce plutonium for the UK weapons programme and develop reprocessing techniques in the process as part of the nuclear fuel cycle. Two graphite pile reactors, Windscale Piles 1 and 2 were constructed under the weapons programme and went critical in 1950. Both operated successfully until a fire in the Windscale Pile 1 in October 1957. Following their shutdown and defuelling (only partial for the damaged Pile 1) the reactors were placed in a regime of care and maintenance until the mid 1980s when significant safety improvements were undertaken resulting in their current monitoring and surveillance while preparations are underway for decommissioning. the current programme of decommissioning commenced.

With the closure of the two piles the buildings adjacent to Pile 2 were refurbished to house a suite of lead cells located in B14 and concrete caves in B13. These two facilities then operated as Post Irradiation Examination (PIE) facilities for irradiated fuels and materials. B13 remains the major UK facility for PIE of Civil and MoD nuclear programmes.

UKAEA moved into research into gas-cooled reactor fuel with the construction of a prototype reactor – the Windscale Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor (WAGR) – in 1958. This reactor was the forerunner of a family of gas-cooled reactors built to produce electricity in the UK . WAGR operated from 1963 until 1981 when it was shut down and all fuel removed. WAGR then became the UKs’ demonstration project for reactor decommissioning to support the future decommissioning of the Magnox and AGR power reactors.

The Windscale site is unique in being an island licensed site within the Sellafield licensed site. The operations on the site are closely linked with the Sellafield site with utilities, emergency services and other site support functions being provided by Sellafield.

Vision for the Windscale Site

The vision for Windscale is to reduce the significant hazards and remediate the Site to brownfield status as quickly as possible, commensurate with safety and environmental protection, and value for money.

To achieve this ultimate goal vision, UKAEA has developed an accelerated decommissioning strategy to enable Windscale to reach an Interim End State by 2015 such that 2015. By this date, all remaining redundant nuclear facilities are will be in an inherently safe regime requiring minimal intervention. By this time, intervention and all other buildings have been demolished to ground level but with their foundations remaining. Work to achieve the Final End State - a brownfield site that would lead eventually to unrestricted access of the site - is then initiated at the most appropriate time and dependant on national strategy.

The justification for leaving foundations in place will be risk-based and based on ALARP principles using Best Practical Means and Best Practical Environmental Option evaluations.

The Interim End State reflects the particular characteristics of the site and its historic links with the adjacent Sellafield facility. The two graphite piles dominate the site both visually and for their decommissioning undertaking. Additionally, the timing of decommissioning such structures has some similarity with the approach for the Magnox reactors in terms of the most appropriate management of the radioactive materials. Consequently, the The Interim End State will leave Windscale site with the piles under inherently safe conditions and conditioned ILW stored on site. This minimises the generation of large volumes of ILW that would require new storage facilities to await the availability of the final respository , but removes from the Windscale site on an accelerated timescalethe majority of nuclear facilities, associated hazards and supporting services and costs from the Windscale site on an accelerated timescale

The Final End State will see the culmination of activities to de-license the site including:

Decommissioning and demolition of the piles and associated buildings to brownfield
Decommissioning and demolition of B13
Storage of ILW and its removal off site and demolition of the store to brownfield
A period of institutional care and maintenance of the remaining site under brownfield conditions to allow the decay of radionuclides to final clearance levels

The demolition of the final above-ground structures on the Windscale site leaves the area in a radiological brownfield condition that will must then be managed as part of the Sellafield site.

Peter Mann
Head of Site
UKAEA Windscale