Following a considerable amount of effort, dedication and professionalism by all those involved, WVP line 3 has been safely returned to full operations within a few days of the original schedule following an outage spanning 18 months.

Project and plant improvements teams came together to successfully deliver the engineering programme with safety case, engineering design, procurement, installation, commissioning, proof testing and operations all being carried out safely and effectively.

Innovative and effective methods were found by the teams to safely deliver the Shield Doors Improvements and Vitrification Assistance projects alongside other additional plant improvements.  All this was carried out in a highly regulated environment with national and international stakeholder interest.

This major achievement now enables further significant hazard and risk reduction on the Sellafield site by contributing to HAL stocks reduction and represents a key milestone, not only for WVP but for Sellafield Limited, NMP, NDA, UK Government and Overseas stakeholders and customers.

Facility Programme Manager, John Brocklebank said:  “I would like to say a big thank to those persons that have helped in any way in bringing this programme of work to a successful conclusion.  Watching the glass pour into the container was a first for me.  What was very pleasing was the professional way the Operating team handled going into HAL feed, it looked like they had never been away from it”

Todd Wright, NMP’s Managing Director of Sellafield Ltd said: “This is an exceptional achievement and my personal congratulations go to the team that has worked so hard to return the line to full operations. NMP, NDA and Sellafield Ltd are all fully committed to hazard and risk reduction across the Sellafield site and the successful operation of the vitrification plant is a key driver in ensuring we achieve that goal.”

Dr Ian Hudson, the NDA’s Head of Programme for Sellafield said “The ability to continually process highly active liquor through the vitrification plant is a key activity for Sellafield in NDA’s business plan as it directly supports the priority task of high hazard reduction. Successfully bringing VIT line 3 back into operations is an important step in delivering that task and one that I hope will lead to a high level of sustained performance at the plant.”