Sellafield site takes centre stage
Given the size, scale and complexity of Sellafield in West Cumbria, it’s no surprise there’s a strong interest from key national and local stakeholders to view first hand our iconic site.
Just in the past few weeks we’ve been delighted to host Lord Hunt, Minister of State in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero responsible for nuclear, Josh MacAlister, MP for Whitehaven and Workington and Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Dame Angela McLean.
The three visitors were interested in the progress being made in cleaning up the legacy facilities, new buildings being constructed that will be used to safely process and store nuclear waste and repackage special nuclear material and meet some of the 11,000+ staff working on the country’s largest nuclear site.
Lord Hunt, who last visited our site over 14 years ago, said: “Sellafield plays an important role in keeping the nation’s nuclear power stations operating. Their mission is about taking the legacy of the past and building capability for a clean and safe environment for future generations. It was great to see the progress being made and meet staff including local apprentices.”
Josh MacAlister MP meanwhile took the opportunity to visit the largest employer in his constituency. He said: “Our community is incredibly proud of our nuclear heritage and the world leading work we’re doing to safely decommission the site. This work can and should be the springboard for future economic growth, innovation and employment in the north of England.”
Finally, Professor McLean used her visit to look around some of our research and development facilities. Sellafield Ltd’s Chief Technology Officer Robin Ibbotson said: “Professor McLean saw first hand how our site has a proud heritage of world nuclear firsts, and that we continue to leverage the latest technology and innovation to accelerate a safer, faster and more sustainable clean-up of Sellafield.”
Sellafield CEO Euan Hutton added: “I’m always delighted to host stakeholders who have a strong interest in the work we do here at Sellafield. It gives us the opportunity for our amazing staff to demonstrate the innovation and ground breaking work being carried out on a daily basis and the progress we’ve made over the past number of years.
“As an example, for the first time in the site’s history we have started retrieving waste from all four of our legacy ponds and silos, a culmination of years of effort by many people.
“We have transformed the way we are delivering major projects, we are investing in our people and developing a skills base to support the UK’s future nuclear ambitions, and we are providing critical spent fuel management services which are helping the nation keep the lights on.
“We look forward to showing more key stakeholders around our many facilities, both on and off site in the coming months.”
Sellafield Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). David Peattie, Chief Executive of the NDA added: “Welcoming stakeholders to our sites is an important way of showing both the scale of our work and the progress being made on our nationally important mission, while delivering value for money for the UK taxpayer.
“Considering the impact of decommissioning on our communities and leaving a positive legacy is at the heart of everything we do, that’s why we’ve invested £50 million of socio-economic funding over four years in projects in our site communities. With over 17,000 employees across our 17 sites and over 5,000 organisations in our supply chain – it’s not just the economic contribution we are making across the country that is vast, it’s the employment opportunities we are creating as well.”
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