At Berkeley Nuclear Licensed Site we are contracted by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to manage the decommissioning operations on the Berkeley site.

Decommissioning challenge

Berkeley presented an unprecedented challenge - no such power station anywhere in the world of its type had been decommissioned. Magnox Electric Ltd has amassed an exceptional base of expertise and specialist knowledge since the 1970s in devising and executing the decommissioning strategy at Berkeley since its closure in 1989.

The station's layout - different to other Magnox stations - has demanded more extensive decommissioning work. The reactors have been defuelled, the cooling ponds drained, cleaned and infilled and the turbine hall dismantled and demolished. Now the site is undergoing final preparation for the care and maintenance phase which means streamlining the site to leave only the reactor buildings whose radioactivity demands storage. Ultimately they too will be dismantled, leaving the site to be levelled and landscaped.

Delivering value

The decommissioning programme, now in its sixteenth year, covering the two reactors and all related facilities, has progressed to programme and substantially under budget.

• 84,877 spent fuel elements despached to Sellafield - defuelling completed 14 weeks ahead of the 1992 target date
• A highly successful re-use and recycle programme so much so that 24,000 tonnes of scrap material was released in phases to avoid depressing the market place
• Decommissioning of the Caesium Removal Plant is ahead of schedule - an essential part of the waste processing and management strategy on site
• Successfully delicensed 11 hectares of the site

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