The Low Level Waste Repository is the UK's central long-term store for

low-level radioactive waste Low-level waste (LLW) or Low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) is nuclear waste that does not fit into the categorical definitions for intermediate-level waste (ILW), high-level waste (HLW), spent nuclear fuel (SNF), transuranic waste (TRU), or cer ...

located on the West Cumbrian coast near Drigg village and opened in 1959. It is a subsidiary of the

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, formed by the Energy Act 2004. It evolved from the Coal and Nuclear Liabilities Unit of the Department o ...

Function

The site stores low level

radioactive waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...

from Sellafield, MoD sites, nuclear power stations, hospitals, universities, medical companies and the oil industry. The site, which was opened in 1959 by the

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ...

, covers about on the site of the former

Royal Ordnance Factory Royal Ordnance Factories (ROFs) was the collective name of the UK government's munitions factories during and after the Second World War. Until privatisation, in 1987, they were the responsibility of the Ministry of Supply, and later the Ministr ...

(ROF Drigg).

Ownership and management

The

(NDA), who owned LLWR at the time, announced in March 2008 that UK Nuclear Waste Management Ltd (a consortium led by the Washington Division of

URS Corporation URS Corporation (formerly United Research Services) was an engineering, design, and construction firm and a U.S. federal government contractor. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, URS was a full-service, global organization with office ...

and including Studsvik UK, AREVA-NC and Serco Assurance) had been awarded the contract for the management and operation of the Low Level Waste Repository. This arrangement ceased when the LLWR was brought back under direct public management when it became a subsidiary of the NDA in July 2021. In 2022 LLWR was merged with the NDA's Integrated Waste Management Programme to form a division called Nuclear Waste Services.

Continued use

In early 2008,

Cumbria County Council Cumbria County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Cumbria in the North West of England. Established in April 1974, following its first elections held the previous year, it is an elected local government body respon ...

granted permission for a new vault, Vault 9, to be built to accommodate about 700

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

steel containers per year and be able to hold 5,500 ISO steel containers in total, giving an operational life of about eight years. The vault opened for use in 2010. In 2015, a report from the

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

acknowledged that the site would be disrupted in the future by

coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landward ...

and flooding, and placed requirements on LLWR Ltd to maintain a programme of coastal monitoring and to keep up-to-date with research and development on the long-term

effects of climate change The effects of climate change impact the physical environment, ecosystems and human societies. The environmental effects of climate change are broad and far-reaching. They affect the water cycle, oceans, sea and land ice (glaciers), sea level ...

.Environment Agency, Decision Document: Low Level Waste Repository, October 2015

References

External links

* {{coord, 54, 22, 46, N, 3, 27, 25, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Radioactive waste repositories Buildings and structures in Cumbria Nuclear technology in the United Kingdom