Nuclear defueling nears completion
17 Aug 2015
Oldbury nuclear power station will be completely defueled by October, the site’s operators have said.
Once the process is complete, Magnox, which runs the plant in South Gloucestershire, said it can begin essential decommissioning work and care and maintenance preparations.
Site director Mike Heaton said this latest announcement is yet another milestone in the life of the Oldbury plant, which held the world record for the longest uninterrupted operating run of 714 days from 26th May 1989 to 10th May 1991. It then beat its own record from 18th March 1996 to 19th June 1998 with a run of 823 days.
Our aim is to ship all the remaining fuel to Sellafield by the early part of next year
Oldbury site director Mike Heaton
“Our aim is to ship all the remaining fuel to Sellafield by the early part of next year. Everyone on site is working hard to achieve this target,” Heaton said.
The spent nuclear fuel will be sent for reprocessing to Magnox’s reprocessing plant at Sellafield in Cumbria.
Source: Magnox
The reprocessing operation allows for the recovery of the uranium and plutonium.
”Treatment of the waste products is not as simple as ’vitirification’,” Magnox spokesman Nigel Monckton told Process Engineering.
”The majority of the waste radioactive material associated with the fuel is vitrified, but materials such as the fuel element casing are encapsulated in concrete where the resulting waste products will be solidified for storage and eventual disposal,” he said.
It is a process that requires an appropriately skilled workforce.
As such, an event organised by the National Skills Academy Nuclear (NSAN) earlier this month looked to discuss the skills issues within the nuclear industry.
Joined by nuclear industry representatives and employees, the NSAN event tackled challenges faced in nuclear decommissioning, new build & defence – as well as the latest nuclear skills development schemes such as the trailblazers programme and current funding avenues.
NSAN chief executive Jean Llewellyn said: “The industry requires an inflow of 8,600 people per year on average until 2021.”
According to Llewellyn, this inflow is due to the number of people reaching retirement and the expansion of the nuclear industry.
“The opportunities that the nuclear industry presents for providers of high quality training that meets the standards required by nuclear makes this an exciting time for training organisations,” Llewellyn said.
“NSAN is working hard with providers and employers to help to ensure that employers have the provision they need, when they need it and to the standard they require.”
