Gas circulator oils are the primary source of contaminated oil arising as Low Level Waste (LLW) from AGR and Magnox gas cooled reactors operated by British Energy and BNFL Magnox Generation, respectively. In addition, there are oil arisings from the PWR operated by British Energy at Sizewell B. The paper initially identifies the quantities and types of oil involved. The primary method of disposal is on-site or off-site combustion in authorised facilities and typical installations and their operational modes are described. The generation of waste circulator oils at stations is highly variable with some reporting no annual accumulations whilst others accumulate hundreds, or thousands of litres per year. At present some sites have significant stores of oil with no approved disposal route.

In the Magnox reactor context the oil arisings are either as clean but contaminated circulator oil from circulator maintenance or dirty oil associated with and removed from sludge arisings. In the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) context the circulator oil arisings are mainly due to circulator maintenance, with some oil being recycled. Sizewell B also has lubricating oil arisings. A range of alternative technologies for the treatment of LLW oil are reviewed and a number of physical/chemical destruction technologies identified and evaluated.

The paper summarises the results of these studies and indicates where future technologies could be deployed with advantage.