Learning from Waste Treatment Active Demonstrators at Sellafield - 23556

High Hazard Risk Reduction and broad-front decommissioning is expected to generate in excess of 1 Million tonnes of radioactive metal over the lifetime of Sellafield remediation. Metallic items and infrastructure require removal and size reduction as part of the dismantling and waste treatment processes in order to enable compatibility with constrained waste routes. Current capabilities are either sub-optimal or unable to accommodate the predicted volumes and throughput. Furthermore, considering the predicted arisings, there is a need to reduce time at risk for operators. There is an opportunity for safer, faster and better value treatment of radioactive metallic items through the adoption of robotics and improved cutting technologies. This paper details the learning-led Active Demonstrator programme which is investigating a range of capabilities aligned to treatment of metallic waste items. A number of the Active Demonstrators have commenced the learning-led operations phase and key data which will inform strategic decisions for Sellafield and beyond are now being captured. This paper provides an overview of key learning aligned to technology themes. (authors)