www.studsvik.se
A new and controversial nuclear scrap metal recycling plant has just opened near Workington, West Cumbria, at a cost of £6 million.
Studsvik’s Lilyhall metal recycling facility has been built to decontaminate nuclear industry scrap metal for further industrial use. It is the first of its kind in the UK, and the first site to be granted a nuclear license in more than 20 years.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was presided over by Phil Davies, of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Malcolm Smith of Babcock Marine.
Mark Lyons, the president of Studsvik UK, called the facility opening a “hugely significant” step forward in the implementation of the country’s strategy for the treatment of low-level radioactive waste.
“Hundreds of thousands of tons of scrap metal arising from the decommissioning of UK nuclear sites is waiting to be cleaned and recycled,” Lyons said, adding: “Not only will this drastically reduce the amount of low level waste going into the Low Level Waste Repository near Drigg, prolonging its life expectancy, but also salvage valuable metal for further industrial use.
He went on to say: “Recycling steel is also a much ‘greener’ process than mining virgin iron ore for new steel production, using much less energy and greatly reducing pollution to the environment.”
Thanks to www.timesandstar.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.
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