We maintain very strict controls on the types of waste we accept. Sampled and pre-approved wastes arrive at the mine in either drums or flexible intermediate bulk containers (better known as big bags). We verify the contents before loading them into transit capsules for transport underground.
Drums and big bags are then offloaded and stacked in their allocated safe storage areas to a maximum height determined by their contents. The location of each waste consignment is recorded for future reference.
Once each disposal zone has been filled, walls (known as stoppings) are erected between the rock salt pillars to create physical barriers between storage zones.
Safe underground storage, now and in the future
“No other waste management facility, save for those in the nuclear industry, has been as deeply researched and assessed as the Minosus facility.”
As part of our application for an Environment Agency permit, we undertook extensive research, established detailed design and operational procedures and produced thorough qualitative and quantitative short and long-term risk assessments, all supported by complementary evidence.
Enviros, one of Britain’s leading environmental consultancies carried out a comprehensive study, which modelled a range of scenarios up to 50,000 years into the future
Thanks to the geological and hydro-geological features that so effectively isolate the underground beds of rock salt from the biosphere, even in the worst case scenario the facility is likely to have “little or no adverse consequence” on the environment.