Sellafield is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2020, activities at the site include nuclear fuel reprocessing, nuclear waste storage and nuclear decommissioning, and it is a former nuclear power generating site. The licensed site covers an area of 265 hectares and comprises more than 200 nuclear facilities and more than 1,000 buildings. It is Europe's largest nuclear site and has the most diverse range of nuclear facilities in the world situated on a single site.
The Borough of Copeland is a local government district and borough in western Cumbria, England. Its council is based in Whitehaven. It was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the Borough of Whitehaven, Ennerdale Rural District and Millom Rural District. The population of the Non-Metropolitan district was 69,318 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 70,603 at the 2011 Census.
The A595 is a primary route in Cumbria, in Northern England that starts in Carlisle, passes through Whitehaven and goes close to Workington, Cockermouth and Wigton. It passes Sellafield and Ravenglass before ending at the Dalton-in-Furness by-pass, in southern Cumbria, where it joins the A590 trunk road. The road is mostly single carriageway, apart from in central Carlisle, where it passes the castle as a busy dual carriageway road named Castle Way, and prior to that as Bridge Street and Church Street, where it passes close to the McVitie's or Carr's biscuit factory. The Lillyhall bypass is also dual carriageway.
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of nuclear fusion power. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
The River Wyre is a river in Lancashire, England, United Kingdom, which flows into the Irish Sea at Fleetwood. It is approximately 28 miles (45 km) in length. The river is a County Biological Heritage Site and has a sheltered estuary which, from its northwest corner, penetrates deep into the almost square peninsula of the Fylde.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, formed by the Energy Act 2004. It evolved from the Coal and Nuclear Liabilities Unit of the Department of Trade and Industry. It came into existence during late 2004, and took on its main functions on 1 April 2005. Its purpose is to deliver the decommissioning and clean-up of the UK's civil nuclear legacy in a safe and cost-effective manner, and where possible to accelerate programmes of work that reduce hazard. The NDA does not directly manage the UK's nuclear sites. It oversees the work through contracts with specially designed companies known as site licence companies. The NDA determines the overall strategy and priorities for managing decommissioning.
The Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant, or THORP, is a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Sellafield in Cumbria, England. THORP is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and operated by Sellafield Ltd. Spent nuclear fuel from nuclear reactors is reprocessed to separate the 96% uranium and the 1% plutonium, which can be reused in mixed oxide fuel, from the 3% radioactive wastes, which are treated and stored at the plant. The uranium is then made available for customers to be manufactured into new fuel.
Egremont is a market town, civil parish and two electoral wards in Cumbria, England, and historically part of Cumberland. It is situated just outside the Lake District National Park, 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Whitehaven and on the River Ehen.
Nuclear power in the United Kingdom generates 20% of the country's electricity, as of 2020. The UK has 13 operational nuclear reactors at six locations, as well as nuclear reprocessing plants at Sellafield and the Tails Management Facility (TMF) operated by Urenco in Capenhurst.
Drigg is a village situated in the civil parish of Drigg and Carleton on the West Cumbria coast of the Irish Sea and on the boundary of the Lake District National Park in the Borough of Copeland in the county of Cumbria, England.
The River Wiske is a tributary of the River Swale in Yorkshire, England. The Wiske gives its name to several villages it passes through. The name Wiske is derived from an Old English word wisca meaning a water meadow. It was once known as the Foulbroke, a name for which some writers commented that it was well deserved.
The River Irt is a river in the county of Cumbria in northern England. It flows for 14 miles (22 km) from the south-western end of Wast Water, the deepest lake in England, leaving the lake at the foot of Whin Rigg, the southern peak of the famous Wastwater Screes. The name of the river is believed to derive either from the Old English gyr which means "mud", or from the Brittonic words *ar, "flowing", or *īr, "fresh, clean, pure", suffixed with -ed, a nominal suffix meaning "having the quality of...".
The River Belah is a river in the county of Cumbria in England. Its name derives from the Old English word Belge and means the "Roaring River".
The River Ehen is a river in Cumbria, England.
The Low Level Waste Repository is the UK's central long-term store for low-level radioactive waste. It is located on the West Cumbrian coast near Drigg village.
The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain; linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Channel, also known as the Straits of Moyle.
Calder Bridge is a village in Cumbria in England. It is located between the hamlets of Gosforth and Beckermet.
Ponsonby is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Copeland of the county of Cumbria, England. Ponsonby has a church which was constructed in 1840 and had further additions in 1874. Ponsonby is located along and just off the A595. It has a population of 205 according to the 2011 Census Data.
NuGeneration (NuGen) is a company in liquidation that planned to build a new nuclear power station nearby the Sellafield nuclear site in the United Kingdom. The proposed site was called Moorside, and is to the north and west of Sellafield. On 8 November 2018, Toshiba announced their withdrawal from the project and intent to liquidate NuGen.
Moorside nuclear power station is proposed for a site near Sellafield, in Cumbria, United Kingdom. The original plan by NuGeneration, a British subsidiary of Toshiba-owned Westinghouse Electric Company, had the station coming online from 2024 with 3.4 GW of new nuclear capacity, from three AP1000 reactors. Work up to 2018 would include acquiring the site licence, the development consent order, and other required permits and permissions to start work. Site preparation was to take two years, up to 2020.
