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Quick facts

Work to deliver the Winfrith site programme and achieve the site end-point is covered by three key phases: care and maintenance, interim end-state and site closure.

Care and Maintenance, 2008 to 2023

• Both reactors on site – DRAGON and SGHWR – entered a period of Care and Maintenance in 2008 and will be maintained in a safe and secure state for long-term storage inactivity.
• The Winfrith EAST Treatment Plant (WETP) will continue to process and encapsulate sludge arisings for the SGHWR resin beds. There is also a requirement to encapsulate an amount of Thorium.

Interim end-state, 2024 to 2038

• Waste operations will include packaging and disposal of Sodium held on the site, and the continued operation of the Active Liquid Effluent System (ALES).
• An ILW Transfer System, an ILW Processing Plant within SGHWR and an ILW Store will be needed to progress the waste operations. 
• Following their period of Care and Maintenance, the SGHWR and DRAGON reactors will be subject to decommissioning.
• Decommissioning of the Processing Building sections of the drains will be carried out. Off-site facilities which are the responsibility of RSRL, including the Sea Pipeline and the Blacknoll Reservoir, will be decommissioned.
• During this phase, the majority of the remaining 82 hectares of the site, excluding the Treatment Radwaste Store (TRS) will be delicensed.

Site closure phase runs from 2039 to 2048

• During this time, the TRS and ILW Stores will be emptied and their contents transferred to the appropriate repository. The TRS and ILW Stores will then be decommissioned and the associated land remediated.
• Following that, the final delicensing cases will be submitted to the NII, and the areas delicensed.
• The end-point for the site will be achieved with the removal of nuclear regulatory control and the run-down of the contractor team.

Winfrith at a glance

The Winfrith site is being cleaned up in three phases:

• Phase one (2008 to 2023) – both reactors will be put into a period of Care and Maintenance.
• Phase two (2024 to 2038) – decommissioning will recommence.
• Phase three (2039 to 2048) – the site will be restored and delicensed.