New store is ready to take on boxes

The Box Encapsulation Plant Product Store – Direct Import Facility which will take on and store waste from our Pile Fuel Cladding Silo has successfully completed its first dry run of a storage box being transferred from road, to its long term storage vault.

It’s the Direct Import Facility part of the operation that will bring the 3 metre cubed boxes full of waste safely and securely into our stores.

This high-tech facility is the vital bit between the waste coming out of the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo and being stored in one of 4 product stores.

The current date for real waste to start coming through the facility is summer 2022.

The facility will import 3m3 boxes of waste into 2 vaults designed to provide storage for a century.

There are 2 routes into the facility – one directly from our Box Encapsulation Plant and the other by road directly into Direct Import Facility. It’s this vital road link which has been successfully tested.

Head of the project, Jeff Gaines said:

The test is to prove the Direct Import Facility and vault equipment will operate as one, to provide confidence ahead of our full plant performance demonstration. This testing was a ‘dummy run’, undertaking the first full cycle of a package from the road bay to the vault.

It was a complete success with no faults or failures. In addition, the project team welcomed our operators who were able to validate their instructions whilst getting some hands-on training on the equipment ahead of handover of the Direct Import Facility area to operations in March.