International Nuclear Services

International Nuclear Services provides a range of irradiated fuel management services to its customers, including irradiated fuel storage, reprocessing and MOX fuel supply. International Nuclear Services is the customer interface and manages the contracts for these services, which are provided from the Sellafield site.

International Nuclear Services is able to offer complete solutions to customers regarding their irradiated fuel management requirements, including transport to the Sellafield site, storage, reprocessing and return of products and wastes to the customer.

The Sellafield site in the UK has a strong heritage of recycling, with over 50,000 tons of irradiated fuel reprocessed to date. The two (Thorp and Magnox) reprocessing facilities at the Sellafield site consist of mechanical and chemical processes to separate recyclable materials (uranium and plutonium) and waste products from the irradiated fuel. Approximately 97% of irradiated fuel is recyclable.

Separated uranium is produced in a stable, powder form that is suitable for storage and subsequent transport to re-enrichment and fuel fabrication facilities. The powder is stored in specially designed drums within a fully engineered facility. Many of our customers have recycled uranium recovered in the Thorp facility into fresh fuel for use in their reactors.

Plutonium is separated in a powder form for safe and secure storage, prior to recycling as Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel. The Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP) is co-located with the Thorp Reprocessing Plant at Sellafield, with both facilities providing a fully integrated recycling capability on one site.

Wastes are conditioned into safe forms that are suitable for long term storage and disposal. All reprocessing contracts signed since 1976 require overseas customers to accept back wastes arisings from reprocessing once they have been suitably conditioned, in accordance with UK Government policy.

Reprocessing minimises the final waste volume requiring disposal. In addition, International Nuclear Services is able to offer customers Waste Substitution. This involves the retention in the UK of Low and Intermediate Level Waste arising from the reprocessing of overseas irradiated nuclear fuel, in exchange for the return to the customers of an additional amount of High Level Waste. This ‘substitution’ is equivalent in radiological terms to the waste being retained and enables a single form of waste to be returned to the customer. Implementing waste substitution also significantly reduces the number of international waste transports, enabling waste returns to customers to be completed in a timely manner.