Introduction
Waste Management Technology has, over a period of many years, been the main contractor to a number of the UK’s principal nuclear organisations for the development of formulations for cementation of Intermediate Level Wastes arising from fuel reprocessing and power station operations. This includes materials such as fuel element debris, ion exchange resins, borated wastes and effluent treatment plant sludges. The results and experience gained from these development programmes has been used to demonstrate the acceptability of the developed formulations in support of the strategy for encapsulation and disposal of the radioactive waste arisings.

Waste Management Technology Service
The formulation development work will typically be carried out at small scale using inactive simulants, backed up by large-scale inactive tests and if practical, small-scale active tests as well. A key objective is to define a process envelope sufficient to cater for the variations in waste feed composition and inactive material delivery likely to be encountered on a fully operational plant. Familiarity with NDA requirements allows the targeting of programmes and our extensive experience enables an informed judgement of the starting point. A full range of performance evaluation tests, such as compressive strength measurement, dimensional stability measurement, leach and immersion testing, is used to support the formulation work.

We are also able to provide this service for a similar wide range of LLW based on our familiarity with the UK's LLWR disposal requirements. For LLW we are able to combine the formulation development with actual operations, using our LLW cement plant sited at Winfrith, to provide a turnkey service which results in the disposal of cemented waste to LLWR site in Cumbria.