Compton facility site plans, marked up indicating the location of contaminated cows and radioactive glass.
began to develop it for housing. Aurora again supported the contractor, Cognition Land and Water, on the demolition, remediation and removal of all the radioactive waste from the site. It was found that the pots from radiobiology experiments had allowed radioactivity to slowly leak into the soil beneath them. Once all the pots had been removed, another huge remediation task involved measuring, sampling and removing all the contaminated soil underneath. Thousands of samples required specialist radioactivity analysis and Aurora commissioned a temporary laboratory on site to provide a quick turnaround of results. Workers in the trenches had to pass through biological and radiological control barriers to get changed into their protective clothing and meticulously measure each excavator bucket of soil as it was removed, segregated and packaged for specialist disposal at landfill sites and incinerators permitted for radioactive waste disposal.
The whole project involved most of the Aurora staff and was a great opportunity for the trainees to learn new skills like operating contamination control barriers, air sampling, gamma spectroscopy, liquid scintillation analysis and transport checks.
Radioactive Substances Specialist Inspectors from the Environment Agency visited the site to inspect the work, review results and ensure the conditions of the Environmental Permit were being complied with.
After the removal of over 500 tonnes of radioactive waste, a programme of validation began to survey and sample soils and groundwater to confirm nothing remained that would prevent the future use of the site. In 2025, the Environment Agency, after examining all the reports and validation data, allowed the surrender of the site ' s Environmental Permit.
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