Last updated 15:54, Wednesday, 23 April 2008

THE UK Low Level Waste Repository is a key player in the drive to clean up Britain’s nuclear legacy. Low-level waste makes up more than 90 per cent of the UK’s waste legacy by volume but contains less than 0.0003 per cent of total radioactivity, according to Government figures. So how we dispose of it is crucial.

It mostly consists of paper, plastics and scrap metal items used in hospitals, research establishments and the nuclear industry but increasingly it will include soil, concrete and steel as existing installations are decommissioned.

The team at the repository, spread across a coastal site of 100 hectares six miles South of Sellafield, will play a central role in the safe classification, treatment and storage of this waste for the UK.

The contract agreed between UKNWM and the NDA includes efficient operation at LLWR and adds the important dimension of working under the NDA’s leadership to develop and implement an effective and efficient low-level waste programme.

UKNWM believes that incorporation of proven technologies and waste management techniques from around the world will mean a significant cut in the projected cost of closing the NDA’s sites, and save taxpayers significant cost. The benefits will fall to all of the country’s clean-up sites, to the communities that host them, and to all citizens around the country.

UKNWM’s parent companies are all well known, not only for their technical and operational expertise, but for “good citizenship”, working closely with host communities and local organisations to improve life wherever they work.

Dick Raaz said: “West Cumbrian locals can expect to see UKNWM, its executives and its employees appearing in all aspects of life here. We may appear as strangers, but we come with energy and commitment to becoming part of life here in the North West.”

AT the signing of the contract Preston Rahe, the Chairman of UKNWM said: “This contract is a three way partnership between UKNWM, the NDA and the community.

“We are very mindful of three obligations that we have. The first is to safely operate this facility. Safety is our No 1 priority. It always has been. It always will be.

“The second – we intend to embrace this as our community. We are going to work here; we are going to live here; we are going to raise our families here.

“The third is as a partner to the supply chain. We want to energise it, and to grow the nuclear competence for the region and the national nuclear renaissance.”