New Developments.

Recent reports about the expansion of URENCO and Capenhurst give some indication of just what they intend to do at the plant in the years to come.

Here is just one of these reports: –

Urenco to complete New Mexico expansion by year-end.

The two interesting points being:-

The group invested €280.6 million ($309.5 million) in the first half of 2015 in the new enrichment facility in the USA and at its tails management facility in the UK.

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That URENCO said in March that it had pushed back the expected start date of the Capenhurst Tails Management Facility (TMF) deconversion plant to 2017.

ONR Reports.

The recent Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) report makes for some interesting reading too.

http://www.onr.org.uk/llc/2015/urenco-2.pdf

In particular see page 7 under Local Liaison Committee meeting which would seem to confirm the view that all the MOD defuelled reactor pressure vessels will land up at Capenhurst.

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On page 8 section 3 which covers Hex tailing leaks.

The other alarming alarming ONR report includes information about the the Capenhurst Tails Management Facility, which is now scheduled to start running in 2020. This plant will process the depleted uranium from the URENCO plants in both Germany & the Netherlands.

Thus there will be a lot more Uranium Hex being transported by sea & road.

What is really interesting is how the ONR classifies Capenhurst as a the following: –

Type of site: Operational, chemical plant and other facilities.

Waste from the Capenhurst plant

One of the most pointed question about Capenhurst is to be found upon the Radiation Free Lakeland blog.

So just where does the low level radioactive waste from uranium enrichment at Capenhurst and nuclear fuel manufacture at Springfields go?