Real questions. Real employees. Clear answers.
Introducing our new series: The internet’s most asked questions about Sellafield 🔍
We’re taking the questions people search about Sellafield and getting our teams to answer them.
In our first video, our engineer, Paige, answers the question: what does Sellafield do?
Her answer looks at three of our core activities:
💡 Supporting the country’s nuclear energy capability. We do this by receiving and storing spent nuclear fuel from UK power stations.
☢️ Looking after the UK’s civil plutonium stockpile. We ensure these materials are kept safe until a permanent disposal facility is ready.
🏭 Decommissioning and cleaning up the Sellafield site. We are reducing risk, dismantling legacy facilities, and restoring our environment.
To deliver this work our teams drive research, innovation and technology development. This not only supports the Sellafield mission but also the wider nuclear industry.
Find out more about what we do head to our progress and priorities page by clicking the link in our bio.
#Sellafield #Nuclear #Decommissioning #SpentFuel #PlutoniumManagement
We’ve welcomed quite a few new followers over the last couple of months, so we thought we should take the opportunity to introduce ourselves (and reintroduce ourselves to those of you who have been here for a while).
Here at Sellafield Ltd, our world-class employees solve complex nuclear, engineering, and infrastructure challenges for the UK every single day.
In operating, developing, and decommissioning the Sellafield site, we are also delivering one of the largest environmental restoration projects in Europe.
Our nationally important work includes:
🌟 Safely managing all forms of nuclear waste, high, intermediate, and low.
🌟 Helping to keep the lights on across the country by looking after used nuclear fuel from the UK’s fleet of nuclear power stations.
🌟 Being guardians of the UK’s largest stockpile of nuclear materials: ensuring hazardous substances are kept safe until a permanent disposal facility is ready.
🌟 Building on an epic scale: delivering the largest range of major projects anywhere in the country.
Our people power our achievements.
Our collective workforce brings together a rich blend of skillsets and experiences – collaborating with our supply chain and the rest of the @the_nda_group to find new ways of ensuring that hazardous substances are kept safe.
All our activities are driven by a single purpose: to create a clean and safe environment for future generations.
Want to learn more about what we do? Click the link in our bio to read more about our priorities and progress.
#nuclear #Sellafield #WelcometoSellafield #ProudSellafield #nuclearskills #majorprojects #nuclearwaste #futuregenerations
There’s a simple principle behind this week’s #FutureFriday and it’s one that made a Swedish furniture retailer a global phenomenon. Rather than paying to store air, it’s more space efficient to ‘flat pack’ and store things in smaller pieces.
But our version of ‘flat pack’ involves legacy gloveboxes, lasers and robots (and we think that’s far more exciting).
At Sellafield, we’re safely dismantling complex, plutonium contaminated gloveboxes (PCM) - historically used for the safe handling of alpha radioactive materials - in a smarter way. With space for intermediate level waste limited and costly, breaking them down to store the pieces efficiently is key.
Traditionally, this work relies on operators using air-fed suits and hand tools. It’s a hazardous and time-consuming process.
Enter: the Alpha Active Demonstrator.
Using robots and laser cutting to break the contaminated gloveboxes down, we’re proving that there is fully remote alternative to the traditional hands-on method. It means we can safely size reduce them in a controlled environment while keeping our people away from the risk.
Earlier this year, the team achieved a world first. They took a glovebox from installation through to fully remote size reduction and safe packaging. With a second now moving through the programme, and more planned in the near future, we’re refining the process and building a repeatable model for the future.
It’s a smarter, safer and more efficient way to tackle legacy materials, with the potential to transform how we deal with hundreds more gloveboxes across the Sellafield site.
We told you it was more exciting than your everyday ‘flat pack’ furniture…
To find out more about the significance of gloveboxes at Sellafield, click the link in our bio to read the case study.
#sellafield #nuclear #nuclearuk #innovation
#ThrowbackThursday
Taking it back to the early 2010s and the build of one of our intermediate level waste stores — EPS3.
Just look at all that scaffolding 👀 A real reminder of the scale behind projects like this.
Did you know? ❔
⚽️ The size of a football field
⬆️ 20 metres tall
🌍 Built to withstand seismic activity
🧱 Made with 32,000 cubic metres of concrete and 7,000 tonnes of steel
Today, EPS3 is being adapted to safely store waste from one of our legacy silos — helping us tackle some of the UK’s most complex clean-up challenges.
💬 Were you around when EPS3 or EPS2 were being built? Share your memories below.👇
📷 Early construction of EPS3 on the Sellafield site.
#Sellafield #engineering #infrastructure
🔍 Can you still visit Sellafield?
In this video, Jack from our visits team explains that while public tours of the Sellafield site no longer take place, this decision helps us keep the site safe and secure.
He also explains why we do still offer site visits for people like:
▪️Government officials
▪️Industry colleagues from other nuclear organisations, to share knowledge and best practice
▪️Customers of vitrified high level waste
These visits are arranged through official routes only.
If you want to learn more about Sellafield, why not visit The Sellafield Story at the @thebeaconmuseumwhitehaven ?
The exhibition explores our history, what we do today, includes a virtual site tour, and looks ahead to our future operations.
👉 To find out more and book your tickets, head to @thebeaconmuseumwhitehaven .
#Sellafield #NuclearUK #Safety #Nuclear #Whitehaven
This week we have been scaling new heights with robotics 🧱🤖
We have completed the first active demonstration of the @hausbots wall‑climbing robot on the Sellafield site.
Developed with our supply chain partners HausBots, delivered through the Game Changers programme with FIS360 Ltd, this innovative robot is designed to safely access vertical and hard‑to‑reach structures where traditional inspections would require challenging access or working at height.
During the demo, the robot successfully climbed and moved across vertical surfaces on one of our utility storage tanks. It captured live inspection footage with onboard cameras and carried inspection equipment and sensors.
💡 Why this matters
Inspections help us understand asset condition which informs maintenance and decommissioning plans.
Hausbot could transform how we inspect cell walls, external concrete structures, tanks and tall assets across the site.
Like many of the robots we already use on site, Hausbot could enable us to carry out work remotely and repeatably. This means we can:
⚬ reduce risk to people
⚬ work more efficiently
⚬ reduce the overall cost of inspections
⚬ improve data and decision making
⚬ reach previously inaccessible areas
🚀 What’s next?
We’ll carry out further trials in various facilities and conditions on the Sellafield site.
With the right approach, Hausbot could become a valuable addition alongside tools like drones and Spot.
This project shows how working with our supply chain and programmes like Game Changers helps us find safer, smarter ways of working.
#FutureFriday #Robotics #Robot #Innovation #Nuclear
It’s #ThrowbackThursday 👍
An archive look at the Sellafield site — with the Fuel Handling Plant (FHP) taking centre stage 📸
For over 40 years, FHP has helped keep the UK powered .⚡
By safely receiving and managing used AGR fuel, it supports reactors to keep generating low‑carbon electricity for homes and businesses. 🏡
Still playing a vital role today — helping keep the UK’s lights on.💡
🔴 That bold red cladding… hard to miss!
But do you know why it was chosen?
👇 Want to learn more?
Check out the case study in our link in the comments.
#Sellafield #archive #nuclearenergy #cleanup
➡️ This #FutureFriday we are giving you a peak into the progress that will drive future waste retrievals from the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS).
Last week, our teams completed an important project milestone for the second Silo Emptying Plant (SEP) machine by carrying out an in-active maintenance demonstration.
The remotely operated SEP machine is designed to reach down into the silo, take a ‘grab’ of waste and transfer it into a contained skip. These mammoth machines weigh in at nearly 400 tonnes, are 13 metres long, 5.5 metres wide and standing 6.5 metres tall!
As you can see in the video, this in-active demonstration involved safely moving the machine between compartments, testing how it can be maintained in situ, before returning it to position.
In-active demonstrations allow us to test, learn and refine safely. They are a vital part of commissioning, ensuring the equipment is reliable and maintainable for decades of operation.
This achievement reflects careful planning, strong teamwork, and collaboration from our project, maintenance, operational, engineering, and commissioning teams and our delivery partners, Nuclear Decommissioning Solutions (a joint venture between Altrad, Cavendish Nuclear and The Shepley Group).
We began retrieving historic waste from MSSS in 2022 using the first Silo Emptying Plant machine. Bringing a second machine into operation alongside the first is a key step in increasing our retrieval capability and safely accelerating routine waste removal from MSSS.
Over time, with a third SEP machine also planned for installation, this growing capability will allow us to place retrieved waste into safe, modern storage and deliver our ultimate priority: emptying the silo to reduce the risk it poses.
To read more about our progress in MSSS, click the link in our bio.
#sellafield #Nuclear #uknuclear
This week’s #throwbackthursday
An old view of the original Sellafield Visitors’ Centre and farm buildings located just outside the main site boundary.
For many visitors, this was the starting point of an organised tour, with coaches bringing groups on site to learn more about Sellafield’s work and operations.
The Visitors’ Centre was an important part of the experience for many people, helping to bring Sellafield’s work to life and offering a first glimpse of the site for visitors at the time.
Public tours later came to an end, as security arrangements across the nuclear sector changed and were strengthened.
Can you guess what year this photo was taken? Does anyone remember taking a coach tour, or have any funny memories to share? (We think you can even spot one of the coaches in the image.)
#throwback #sellafield #nuclear #archives
This #FutureFriday is all about pumps, valves and preparing for the decades ahead.
Construction of the buildings that make up the SIXEP Continuity Plant (SCP) is largely complete. Our focus is now shifting to the internal fit-out that will start to bring the plant to life.
Inside the buildings, teams are installing essential equipment including tanks, vessels, gantry cranes and thousands of metres of high-integrity pipework. This work is being delivered by our supply chain partners through the Programme and Project Partners (PPP), with installation already well underway.
This week, we progressed with the installation of the plant’s pump and valve modules. The video shows our teams carefully lifting one of the 14 modules into position.
These critical components will move effluent through a series of treatment stages, supporting SCP’s vital function: continuing Sellafield’s effluent treatment process for decades to come.
As the continued ‘kidneys’ of the Sellafield site, SCP will ensure radioactive isotopes are removed from water used in nuclear operations before it can be safely discharged.
What’s the next step? The project will progress with its mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, control and automation fit-out. This will bring all systems together in preparation for commissioning.
👉 To learn more about SCP, visit the priorities and progress section on our website. Link our bio.
#nuclear #sellafield #majorprojects #construction safety
#ThrowbackThursday to the Highly Active Liquor Evaporation and Storage (HALES) plant at Sellafield.
HALES plays an important role in treating highly active liquid waste, reducing its volume so it can be stored safely for the long term.
This early image is a far cry from the construction activity you’ll see across the Sellafield site today!
👉 Can anyone date this image of when HALES construction was underway?
👉 Do you have any memories to share of working in the facility?
#archive #nuclear #sellafieldLtd #sellafield waste
🔍 How do we inspect what we can’t access?
This #FutureFriday, we’re spotlighting Camdroid 📸 — an innovative inspection tool taking its next step towards routine use ✅
Camdroid is an integrated camera system that can be deployed into openings as small as 19 mm (about the width of a 5p coin 🪙).
It combines:
📱 A smartphone camera
💡 LED lighting
🌀 Flexible tubing
—all in one compact device.
The result? HD, colour footage from some of our most hard‑to‑reach areas, supporting confident decision‑making and long‑term asset maintenance 🛠️📊
📍 Recently, Camdroid has undergone active demonstrations across the Sellafield site, marking a key milestone in its development 🚧✨
🚀 What’s next?
Insights from these demonstrations will help shape Camdroid’s future — from wider deployment to full integration into routine inspections.
🤝 A true team effort
Developed through the Game Changers programme, sponsored by Sellafield Ltd and delivered with FIS360 and UKNNL, with solutions from Design Driven Solutions and Ice9 Robotics.
👏 Thank you to everyone involved for the expertise, collaboration, and commitment that made this milestone possible.
🔗 Want to learn more? Check out the case study via the link in our bio.
#innovation #sellafield #engineering
