This webinar will explore two aspects: the Sellafield site earthquake liquefaction assessment; and civil engineering challenges in decommissioning the Sellafield site.
Sellafield site earthquake liquefaction assessment:
Nuclear safety-related structures in the UK, such as those located at Sellafield, are required to resist extreme hazards – including those associated with 1-in-10,000-year earthquakes. Earthquakes can create liquefaction, therefore this is a hazard which needs to be considered on nuclear sites in the UK.
A seismic liquefaction vulnerability assessment was completed in 2022, providing up-to-date results and comparing those with the same assessment that was carried out in the 1980s. This presentation will discuss the methodology used in the 2022 study, present its results and conclusions, and compare findings with the 1980s study.
Civil engineering challenges in decommissioning:
Sellafield are responsible for the complex task of decommissioning the Sellafield site to create a clean and safe environment for future generations.
To achieve this goal, historic facilities are being modified and becoming operational once again to retrieve waste for safe long-term storage. This has led to a short-term increase in risk, such as the introduction of new machinery and equipment increasing the load being applied to an aging structure. Long-term, there is a high hazard risk reduction associated with getting the waste into safer storage. This presents civil engineers with a unique set of challenges.
This part of the presentation will outline some of the challenges faced on one of Sellafield’s most hazardous facilities.
