MAGNOX North’s Chapelcross site has begun the next phase in its life with the start of final de-fuelling of Reactor 1.
The first fuel element was removed from the reactor core on August 18, beginning the active commissioning of the newly upgraded fuel route. (more…)
For the first time since a fire 50 years ago, engineers have taken a look inside the Windscale Pile 1 reactor at the Sellafield nuclear plant.
The decommissioning team looked inside the affected area with an endoscope to take pictures from the core, allowing for the removal of the remaining fuel and isotopes in the reactor pile.
In 1957 one of the two reactor piles caught fire and caused Britain’s worst nuclear accident, releasing masses of radiation into the countryside. (more…)
Tonnes of radioactive liquid metal - a legacy of the experimental fast reactor programme at Dounreay in Caithness - have been destroyed.
Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) said the material was turned into “harmless” salt water.
The water was put through a further process so it could be discharged into the sea. (more…)
It has been revealed that it will take more than 100 years before the toxic nuclear site in Sellafield is safe.
A report from Westminster’s Public Accounts Committee says the UK’s largest atomic power station will not be completely clean until 2120.
The South Down SDLP MP, Eddie McGrady, described the nuclear waste as a time bomb waiting to happen. ‘They are not only producing but importing the dirty stuff from the rest of the world, it is incredible,’ he said. (more…)
BUSINESS is being encouraged to capitalise on the demise of Wales’ nuclear power stations.
The Welsh Assembly Government is working with Magnox North to develop a local supply chain and identify a range of potential opportunities for local businesses.
It is hoped the measures will help businesses raise their game to ensure they have the capacity and capability to benefit from the decommissioning of nuclear power stations in the region. (more…)
The £73 billion cost of decommissioning nuclear power sites could be increased “significantly”, the head of an influential committee of MPs have warned.
Edward Leigh, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee said the cost of work over the next five years had already risen “steeply.” (more…)
Journalist Goldirova sent, from Brussels, a report on a letter written by the Slovak prime minister, in which he warned the European Commission that, unless it soon announced its position on the completion of Mochovce [nuclear power station], the Slovak Government would have to “consider all options, including a proposal to postpone the decommissioning of the second block of the V1 reactor [in Jaslovske Bohunice nuclear power station] until 2010.” It follows from the report that Prime Minister Fico now behaves in the same way towards the EU as he behaves in domestic politics. (more…)
Cuts of up to 40 per cent in grants to scientists have been announced, triggering a warning they could undermine the nation’s ability to build and decommission nuclear power plants.
The reduction in support for individual scientists stems from the budget squeeze experienced by the funding agency which oversees astronomy and physics - the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). (more…)
Site owner the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) will give the plant a record £1.2bn to spend in the next financial year, but insiders say the sum is not enough.
In order to plug the gap, some projects will be put off to a later date, while contractors have been warned they will be expected to cut costs and boost efficiency. (more…)
BRATISLAVA, June 16 (Reuters) - Italy’s utility Enel said on Monday it has boosted the installed capacity at Slovakia’s nuclear power plant Mochovce by seven percent to ease the country’s electricity import needs. Enel, majority owner of leading domestic power firm Slovenske Elektrarne which operates Mochovce, said the capacity boost was to offset the decommissioning of two units at the country’s oldest nuclear power plant at Jaslovske Bohunice. (more…)
