Helping the UK deliver its energy priorities
As Sellafield Ltd progress through 2025/26, Chief Operating Officer Roddy Miller reflects on last year’s performance and discusses this year’s targets with PoliticsHome.
Roddy, who joined Sellafield Ltd as head of retrievals in 2022 and was appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2024, is responsible for the overall performance of programmes and operations.
He said: “A central part of the Sellafield Executive team’s role is to make sure that our targets align to our longer-term mission and objectives as set out by the NDA.
“This includes ensuring our workforce understand their part in delivering success for Sellafield, with everyone working towards nuclear excellence - in safety, security, environmental, and operational performance.
“At our site, we are cleaning-up the country’s highest nuclear risks and hazards, and safeguarding nuclear fuel, materials and waste - nationally important work. It’s a privilege to work at Sellafield alongside such a talented and dedicated workforce and supply chain.
“Last year our teams worked extremely hard to deliver key mission milestones.
"For example, across all four of our legacy ponds and silos, focus was placed on increasing hazard risk reduction. This included restarting waste retrievals in the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo (PFCS), where we hit the key target of 18 boxes.
“Similar progress was made in the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond (FGMSP) where the first zeolite skip was removed, and the divers programme in the Pile Fuel Storage Pond (PFSP) was an innovative way of helping us remove some of the last remaining inventory in the pond.
“The Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS) underwent a series of planned outages throughout last year which allowed the teams to carry out very important work and I am satisfied that we utilised this time effectively.
“Outside of retrievals, we introduced a faster approach to demolition, remained on track with major projects, and improved the site’s electrical distribution network. We also removed the first glovebox from the MOX Demonstration Facility, which required collaboration from teams across site including analytical services, and remediation.
“Our research and development team introduced the first Risk Reduction of Glovebox Operations (RRoBO), an example of how robotics can be used to make glovebox operations safer in the future.
“This formed a part of our broader robotics and AI programme, tasked with developing technologies that make operations safer, more secure, and increase value for money.
“In spent fuel services we received a record amount of fuel from the UK’s nuclear reactor fleet, continuing our work to keep the lights on, and we have completed a number of important campaigns in spent nuclear fuel management.
“Each of these successes have progressed the site to a safer position, and while they don’t capture the full-scale of vital work that is on-going across Sellafield, they are important markers in the journey we are on as an organisation.
“This year provides us with an opportunity to build on this success. The teams have put forward targets that are ambitious yet achievable, many are aligned with our key decommissioning milestones, which are dates that stretch beyond this financial year.
“We are keeping the pace of retrievals going across our legacy ponds and silos. In MSSS we have taken some key learning from earlier operational experience by re-tooling the facility and deploying a novel rake to level the crater within the waste bed. This is a key capability that we will need to complete the retrievals process.
“It will be another busy year for the vitrification teams as we continue to process and vitrify highly active liquor. We are aiming to have 2 lines operational and running in parallel, rather than 1, while we work towards bringing the third (previously mothballed) line back into service in future years.
“Safely looking after the UK's stockpile of nuclear materials remains a priority for Sellafield, while we invest in major projects which will provide us with a route to finally immobilise material.
“New targets, designed to support the operational work across site, have been introduced alongside previous ones, particularly in our information services space. Improving our ICT resilience ensures that our services are available 24/7. This will help to minimise disruptions to business operations and improve the reliability of our systems.
“Increasing focus on asset management to improve the way we care for our aging facilities, including removing assets through the new remediation approach to remove redundant assets we no longer need, allows us to save money on maintenance so that we can focus on operations.
“Moving forward, we have an opportunity to think differently about how we deliver our work. By optimising our operations and projects, we can continue to achieve meaningful outcomes while adapting to the new financial landscape. Meeting our targets will be a key step in realising this approach.
“We’ve agreed upon a varied set of challenging and innovative targets for 2025/26. The progress we’ve made over the past year gives me confidence that we’re well-positioned to continue building on that success.”
Whitehaven and Workington MP Josh MacAlister said: “Sellafield, Europe’s largest and most complex site is based in my constituency. The company and its supply chain is carrying out nationally important decommissioning work - cleaning up the legacy of our nuclear heritage with first of a kind work solutions. I’m confident that the company’s world class engineers and nuclear professionals will rise to the challenge in the years to come.“
