The first phase of a complex land preparation project, known as the Intermediate Level Waste East Zone (ILW-EZ), has been completed on the Sellafield site paving the way for future infrastructure projects that will support the site’s decommissioning.
The ILW-EZ project has been completed nine months ahead of schedule, achieving significant savings, and with exceptional safety performance – a testament to the highly collaborative approach taken by our partnership.
Derek Roberts, senior client lead, said:
“It has been a strong collaborative effort to get us to this point. The team has delivered the project with a good safety record and schedule performance whilst remaining under budget. Everyone should be proud of what has been achieved.”
After two years of complex planning, the project has seen ground and excavation works completed to prepare land equivalent in size to seven football pitches – 50,000m2. The team, including supply partners Keltbray, Flannery, G&AM Lawson, DSD Construction, and NG Bailey, has excavated 130,000m3 of material over 18 months to enable the construction of facilities which include our Lightly Shielded Store (LSS1). This facility will store thousands of intermediate level waste packages pending the future availability of a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF).
Key to the savings achieved, the excavated material hasn’t gone into landfill and will eventually be reused when the site is remediated and returned to its end state.
Paul Bettany, head of project, said:
“I’m delighted we’ve reached this major milestone which is a critical enabler and sets the stage for future facilities to be built that will play a key role in the site’s clean up.
“Delivering projects of this scale in the complex environment of a nuclear site is not easy. Together, we have completed the works safely, exceeded our ambitions, and managed to close out the project ahead of schedule and under budget.
“This is an amazing effort from so many teams and our supply chain partners.”
Click here to watch the video to learn more and to hear from those involved: