Clean-up works at the Sellafield nuclear station have reached a new milestone.

Workers have removed half of the radioactivity from the station’s oldest nuclear fuel pond.

The Pile Fuel Storage Pond is a relic from the Cold War when Sellafield produced material for the UK’s nuclear deterrent.

It is one of four high hazard facilities on the site prioritised for clean-up by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

Its contents need to be removed so it can be drained and demolished, the NDA stated.

This is hugely challenging because the facility was not built with decommissioning in mind, it added.

Paul Foster, Managing Director of Sellafield said: “Removal of the entire canned fuel inventory is a major step towards decommissioning this facility and reducing the risk posed by Sellafield’s legacy facilities.

“This is a fantastic example of how closer collaboration with our colleagues in Government, the NDA, our regulators and the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) is delivering fit-for-purpose solutions to the accelerated clean-up of the site.”

Breakthrough in nuclear waste storage could save millions, according to the NDA.