Sellafield Vitrification should ensure safe storage of waste in the UK for the middle to long term. Construction of the Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP) was completed in 1997, though justification for the operation of the plant was not achieved until October 2001. Mixed oxide, or MOX fuel, is a blend of plutonium and natural uranium or depleted uranium which behaves similarly (though not identically) to the enriched uranium feed for which most nuclear reactors were designed. MOX fuel is an alternative to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel used in the light water reactors which predominate in nuclear power generation. MOX also
Heysham nuclear power station 1 unit 1 will operate on six out of the eight boilers until a detailed repair strategy has been developed. The construction, which was undertaken by a consortium known as National Nuclear Corporation (NNC), began in 1979 and the station opened in 1988. Its generating capacity is 1250 MWe, and it is estimated to keep running until at least 2030. Heysham 2 shares its reactor design with Torness nuclear power station and is a development of the reactor design used at Hinkley Point B. The reactors were supplied by NNC and the turbines by NEI. Heysham nuclear power station Heysham