Sellafield has successfully completed the bulk removal of radioactive BUTEX liquor from its oldest Highly Active Liquor Evaporation and Storage (HALES) tanks. This material, a byproduct of reprocessing operations from the 1950s, had been stored in the tanks for decades.
Approximately 110m³ of the liquor was transferred from the old tanks to new ones. The process, which involved 2,250 operating cycles moving 40 litres at a time, took months to complete, despite initial expectations that it would take over a year.
Teams from operations, engineering, and safety case collaborated to update the ventilation system and secure necessary permissions from the Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency. Chris Bone, HALES head of operations, acknowledged the initial uncertainty surrounding the feasibility of the task and praised the team's commitment.