Tetra Tech provided long-term nuclear and fire safety support to Sellafield Ltd for the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo (PFCS), one of the site’s oldest legacy waste facilities housing the most hazardous waste.
Built in the 1950s to store cladding from early nuclear fuel, PFCS contains high-hazard radioactive waste within a legacy structure requiring significant remediation to support safe retrieval activities. The facility required robust new nuclear and fire safety justification to maintain safe operations, introduce new access arrangements, and enable progressive waste retrieval while minimising overall risk to workers, the public, and the environment.
Tetra Tech provided over 20 years of specialist nuclear safety and fire safety support to Sellafield Ltd, covering all phases of the PFCS lifecycle. This included maintaining and updating the existing safety case, incorporating additional risk-reduction measures, and developing new safety justifications to enable retrieval operations.
We supported our client by:
- Providing nuclear and fire safety support for continued care and maintenance of PFCS
- Developing a safety case to support preparation for retrievals, including installation of compartment access doors
- Delivering the full nuclear and fire safety case for waste retrievals from the first silo compartment, from concept design through to operational readiness
Benefits
- Enabling the safe transition from continued care and maintenance to active waste retrieval operations
- Supporting the routine safe retrieval and packaging of radioactive waste into storage boxes
- Establishing a safety case framework that incorporates operational learning and continuous improvement to safety practices