ONE of the ‘big four’ legacy facilities at the Sellafield site - the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo – is a step closer to being cleaned up thanks to the arrival of six stainless steel doors.

The 12.4 tonne doors – 7m tall and 4m wide - will be the access point for waste retrievals' machinery to begin lifting out the silo’s contents.

Following years of design, planning, manufacture and testing at the Rosyth site of Bechtel Cavendish Nuclear Solutions and BMT, the first door safely arrived at Sellafield in early August. It was lifted into a 40-tonne, nine-metre wide steel door frame on the side of the building.

All six doors are due to be installed by Christmas, ready for waste retrievals to start in 2020.

Gary Snow, head of the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo programme, said: “This is a significant milestone that required years of hard work and collaboration with our supply chain team.

“It’s exciting to see all the dedication safely and successfully turned into reality."

The Pile Fuel Cladding Silo dates from the 1940s and is one of the most difficult tasks in the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) clean-up programme.

Waste was tipped into the building during the earliest days of Sellafield but no plans were drawn up for how future generations would take out the waste when the building was at the end of its life.