Second shipment of vitrified waste from UK to Germany completed

4th April 2025

The second of three planned shipments of high level waste in the form of vitrified residues has been safely delivered to Germany.

Seven flasks containing high level waste were transported from the Sellafield site, West Cumbria to the port of Barrow-in-Furness by rail.

The flasks were then loaded on to the specialist nuclear transport vessel Pacific Grebe, operated by Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS) for transfer to the German port. The waste was then transported by rail in Germany to the ISAR federal storage facility arriving on 03 April 2025.

This shipment was carried out in full compliance with all appropriate national and international regulations.

The waste returned resulted from the reprocessing and recycling of spent nuclear fuel at Sellafield which had previously been used to produce electricity by utilities in Germany.

Vitrified Residue Returns are a key component of the UK's strategy to repatriate high level waste from the Sellafield site, fulfil overseas contracts and deliver on government policy.

Sellafield Ltd's programme manager Jonathan Clingan said:

Thanks to the excellent work of various teams at Sellafield Ltd, NTS and other partners in the UK and overseas, we have safely delivered the second Vitrified Residue Return to Germany, delivering a key milestone in the UK Government’s commitment to returning waste to overseas customers.