LLW Repository Ltd

Our History

The Low Level Waste Repository has been in operation for over 50 years providing an essential service by managing the UK's low level waste. We are proud of the advances we have made and our achievements over this period. Over the decades the site has transformed from a Second World War munitions factory to a national repository for low level radioactive waste.

In the beginning

During World War II, the site was home to a Royal Ordnance Factory, at the end of the war, the factory was closed. However, these wartime activities left a legacy of contaminated land that we continue to manage.

Repository development

It was in 1957 that Millom District Council granted permission for the site, which was then owned and managed by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, to be developed as a low level waste facility. Back then, disposal of low level waste was based on landfill practices, with waste being tipped into clay-based trenches and covered with layers of stone and soil. Today the disposal trenches have been covered with a water resistant cap and a soil layer with planting of a mixture of grass and shrubs in keeping with the natural environment.

Ownership of the Low Level Waste Repository passed to newly created British Nuclear Fuels Limited in 1971 and the site was managed as part of Sellafield until 2007. In 1988 a new approach to the treatment and disposal of low level waste in the UK saw the opening of Vault 8, an engineered facility for the long-term management of low level waste. Under this new system, low level waste was put into containers and grouted prior to disposal in Vault 8.

The transformation of disposal procedures was completed in 1995 when the Waste Monitoring and Compaction Facility at Sellafield and the Grouting Facility at the Low Level Waste Repository were opened. The new facilities meant that low level waste could be compacted to reduce its volume and grouted within containers ready for disposal in Vault 8 maximising the use of vault space.

New owner

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) was established in 2005 to take responsibility for the decommissioning and clean-up of the UK's civil public sector nuclear sites. Ownership of the site transferred to the NDA on 1st April 2005. In accordance with the NDA's strategy and in support of Government objectives, a competition was launched in 2006 for a contract to manage and operate the Low Level Waste Repository on behalf of the NDA.

LLW Repository Ltd established

In 2007, to support the competition process, a Site Licence Company, known as LLW Repository Ltd, was established to hold the Nuclear Site Licence for the Repository. The site was separated from Sellafield and is now a stand-alone company.

Planning permission for the development of Vault 9 at the Low Level Waste Repository was granted in January 2008 and construction commenced in September 2008.

In April 2008, UK Nuclear Waste Management Ltd (UKNWM) won the Parent Body Organisation competition and took over ownership of LLW Repository Ltd. UKNWM provide leadership and management expertise for the duration of the contract awarded by the NDA. Today, LLW Repository Ltd is developing services as a waste management company to support the national strategy for low level waste.

2009 heralded a significant milestone for the Low Level Waste Repository, 50 years of safe operations at the site and the development of Vault 9, securing continued operations into the next decade.