Sellafield
Summary
- Operator/licensee: Sellafield Ltd
- Type of site: Defueling and partly decommissioning
- Location: West Cumbria
Background
The Sellafield nuclear licensed site is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), and is operated by the site‐licensed company Sellafield Ltd. Sellafield is a complex and diverse site which includes decommissioning reactors, spent fuel storage ponds, reprocessing plants, waste treatment plants and waste storage plants. The site, which currently employs approximately 10,000 full time equivalent staff, is located on the West Cumbrian coast adjacent to the Irish Sea on the western outskirts of the Lake District National Park and within the catchments of the Rivers Calder and Ehen.
The site has played a pivotal role within the nuclear industry since the 1940s. Site operations include fuel reprocessing, fuel fabrication and storage of nuclear materials and radioactive wastes.
Calder Hall, located on the site, was the world's first commercial nuclear power station. Generation started in 1956 and ceased in 2003.
Windscale, also located on the site, comprises three reactors. Two of the reactors were shut down in 1957 and the third one was closed in 1981. Substantial damage by fire to one of the reactors in 1957 has created significant additional decommissioning challenges.