LLW Repository Ltd
About Us
LLW Repository Ltd is a waste management company that provides services to Customers to treat and dispose of low level radioactive waste. On behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, we manage the national Low Level Waste Repository in West Cumbria and oversee a national Low Level Waste programme to ensure that lower activity waste is managed effectively.
Low Level Waste
Low level waste arises mainly from the civil nuclear industry during power generation and decommissioning activities. It is also generated by research, healthcare, defence, oil and gas industries. It consists of a wide range of materials used in a radioactive operating environment such as paper, cardboard, plastic, protective clothing, soil, rubble and metal. The radioactive content of such material is low. To put this into context, low level waste is less radioactive than some naturally occurring rocks found across the UK. Low Level Waste makes up more than 90 per cent of the UK's radioactive waste legacy by volume but contains less than 0.1 percent of the total radioactivity
Low level waste is defined, in Government Low Level Waste Policy, as: "radioactive waste having a radioactive content not exceeding four gigabecquerels per tonne (GBq/te) of alpha or 12 GBq/te of beta/gamma activity."
Because of its minimal radioactive content, low level waste is suitable for disposal in the near surface disposal facility at the Low Level Waste Repository that we manage and operate on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
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LLW overview