Thorp

Thorp is a Middle English word for a hamlet or small village, from Old English (Anglo-Saxon)/Old Norse þorp (also thorp). There are many place names in England with the suffix "-thorp" or "-thorpe". Most are in West Yorkshire, East Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk but some are in Surrey.

Old English (Anglo-Saxon) þorp is cognate with Low-Saxon trup/trop/drup/drop as in Handrup or Waltrop, Frisian terp, German torp or dorf as in Düsseldorf, the 'Village of the river Düssel', and Dutch dorp.

References

See also

Thorp (disambiguation)

A thorp is a hamlet or village.

Thorp or THORP may also refer to:

Places

United Kingdom

United States

People

Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant

The Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant, or THORP, is a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Sellafield in Cumbria, England. THORP is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and operated by Sellafield Ltd (which is the site licensee company). Spent nuclear fuel from nuclear reactors is reprocessed to separate the 96% uranium and the 1% plutonium, which can be reused in mixed oxide fuel, from the 3% radioactive wastes, which are treated and stored at the plant. The uranium is then made available for customers to be manufactured into new fuel.

THORP is due to close in 2018 once all existing reprocessing contracts have been fulfilled.

History

Construction of THORP started in the 1970s, and was completed in 1994. The plant went into operation in August 1997.

Between 1977 and 1978 an inquiry was held into an application by British Nuclear Fuels plc for outline planning permission to build a new plant to reprocess irradiated oxide nuclear fuel from both UK and foreign reactors. The inquiry was to answer three questions: "1. Should oxide fuel from United Kingdom reactors be reprocessed in this country at all; whether at Windscale or elsewhere? 2. If yes, should such reprocessing be carried on at Windscale? 3. If yes, should the reprocessing plant be about double the estimated site required to handle United Kingdom oxide fuels and be used as to the spare capacity, for reprocessing foreign fuels?". The result of the inquiry was that the new plant, the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant, was given the go-ahead in 1978, although it was not completed until the 1990s at a cost of £1.8 billion.