The Challenge
Most Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) at Sellafield is processed through encapsulation plants and then exported for interim above ground storage in the Encapsulated Product Stores (EPS). With EPS 1 full and EPS 2 filling, there is a requirement for a third plant to enable ongoing encapsulation.
The objective of this project was to support the design team by assessing operational issues in feeder plants to the EP stores to determine when EPS 3 would be required and establish if and when an additional EPS 3 import/export facility was required.
The Solution
The project scope considered the Lifetime Work Programme (LWP) forecasts for drum arisings into EPS from its supply plants (summary material flows are shown in Fig 1 below). A sensitivity analysis used historical conversion factors in the encapsulation plants supplying drums to EPS to predict the potential future range of drum arisings. A Monte Carlo simulation was employed to mimic the drum feed and this in turn was used to drive a spreadsheet model establishing the potential range of dates for filling EPS 2 (and therefore when EPS 3 would be required).
Following the sensitivity analysis, a detailed operational model was used to determine the capability of plants to supply drums into EPS 2 and 3 to establish what shift patterns or productivity improvements may be required to achieve the LWP.
Fig 1: EPS 2 and 3 Supply Route
The Benefit
The cost of this work was £40k.
