U.K. nuclear company Magnox Ltd. said Monday it has retrieved the first fuel skip from the Oldbury Site’s cooling pond, marking the start of a campaign to clear 60 tons of waste from the pond before draining and decontamination.
Located in South Gloucestershire, the Oldbury nuclear power plant operated between 1967 and 2012. Magnox used the redundant fuel skips for storing spent fuel rods they were retrieved from the reactor. After they are all removed from the pond, the skips will be analyzed for radioactivity prior to final disposal.
“We have been decommissioning the Oldbury Site pond complex for a relatively short period of time, so to be removing skips already is quite an achievement,” Oldbury Site Closure Director Mike Heaton said in a statement.
