Springfields is a nuclear fuel production installation in Salwick, near Preston in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

(). The site is currently operated by Springfields Fuels Limited, under the management of Westinghouse Electric UK Limited, on a 150-year lease from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Since its conversion from a

munitions Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of ...

factory in 1946, it has previously been operated and managed by a number of different organisations including 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 Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). T ...

and British Nuclear Fuels. Fuel products are produced for the UK's nuclear power stations and for international customers.

Activities on the site

The site has been making

nuclear fuel Nuclear fuel refers to any substance, typically fissile material, which is used by nuclear power stations or other atomic nucleus, nuclear devices to generate energy. Oxide fuel For fission reactors, the fuel (typically based on uranium) is ...

s since the mid-1940s. The site is notable for being the first nuclear plant in the world to produce

Magnox Magnox is a type of nuclear power / production reactor that was designed to run on natural uranium with graphite as the moderator and carbon dioxide gas as the heat exchange coolant. It belongs to the wider class of gas-cooled reactors. The ...

fuel for a commercial power station ( Calder Hall). The four main activities carried out on the site are: *Production of oxide fuels for advanced gas-cooled and

light water reactor The light-water reactor (LWR) is a type of thermal-neutron reactor that uses normal water, as opposed to heavy water, as both its coolant and neutron moderator; furthermore a solid form of fissile elements is used as fuel. Thermal-neutron react ...

s, as well as intermediate fuel products (

uranium dioxide Uranium dioxide or uranium(IV) oxide (), also known as urania or uranous oxide, is an oxide of uranium, and is a black, radioactive, crystalline powder that naturally occurs in the mineral uraninite. It is used in nuclear fuel rods in nuclear reac ...

powders, granules, and pellets) *Production of

uranium hexafluoride Uranium hexafluoride, sometimes called hex, is the inorganic compound with the formula . Uranium hexafluoride is a volatile, white solid that is used in enriching uranium for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. Preparation Uranium dioxide is co ...

, or "hex" *Processing of fuel-cycle residues * Decommissioning and demolition of redundant plants and buildings At its peak the site employed 4000 people, but reduced demand and increased automation saw this fall to about 800 by 2020. In December 2022 Westinghouse received a £13 million grant from the UK government to explore the development of Uranium Conversion Services at the site.

Protests

Protests have been held at the site against the production of nuclear waste. In the 1980s there were also protests against apartheid, due to the use of uranium imported from Namibia.

Future of the plant

Decommissioning activities have so far resulted in 87 buildings on the site having been fully demolished. A Clean Energy Technology Park (CETP) has been set up to encourage new companies to operate on the site.

References

{{authority control Chemical plants of the United Kingdom Borough of Fylde Nuclear research institutes in the United Kingdom Nuclear technology in the United Kingdom Organisations based in Lancashire Nuclear weapons infrastructure of the United Kingdom