Cleanup crews at the U.K.’s shuttered Bradwell Power Station have now decontaminated more than 10,000 square meters of walls, floors, and ceiling, the nation’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority announced on Monday.
The cleanup covers an area roughly the size of a rugby field, according to NDA. Site manager Magnox Ltd. completed a four-year effort in 2012 draining and stabilizing the ponds that were used to temporarily store and cool used nuclear fuel. The U.K. fuel was subsequently sent to the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria.
“The Magnox Ltd team has worked well to reach this milestone that reduces hazard on the Bradwell site,” NDA Chief Operating Officer Pete Lutwyche said in a statement. “This achievement is another excellent example of a project delivering on time and to budget. We will be working with the team to ensure that the lessons learned from tackling this challenge are shared across our wider estate.”
Magnox also recently decontaminated the site’s underground waste vaults and installed weatherproof cladding for the reactor buildings. Among the next milestones will be the demolition of the redundant ponds building and other ancillary buildings, and then installation of weatherproof cladding over the remaining buildings, according to Monday’s announcement.
Located near the Essex coastline, Bradwell generated electricity from 1962 to 2002. It is now more than halfway through its decommissioning program.
