Press release from BNFL
14th July 2003
The go-ahead has been given to decommission Hinkley Point A Power Station. The decision by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII), part of the Health and Safety Executive, follows two periods of extensive public consultation.
While defuelling has been underway for the last 18 months, it means contracts can now be let to begin some deplanting and demolition on the site.
A team from BNFL’s decommissioning arm, BNFL Environmental Services (based on site and at Berkeley Centre in Gloucestershire), is carrying out the decommissioning.
As work progresses in the coming months the number of contractors on site is expected to grow and firms will be encouraged to employ local labour wherever possible.
The NII and the Environment Agency will oversee the decommissioning process, parts of which will also require normal planning consent.
It is the first time permission has been given to decommission a nuclear power station under new legislation which was introduced in 1999.
The legislation requires production of a comprehensive Environmental Statement covering the company’s proposals for the ultimate total clearance of the site and landscaping. The statement went out for a six-month public consultation period early last year. A further, shorter consultation was carried out this year.
During the last 18 months the station has also carried out a massive community communications programme to ensure people know what is involved with the decommissioning.
This has included presentations to numerous local councils and organisations, organising and attending business events, writing to hundreds of local people and making explanatory leaflets available throughout Somerset. Details also appeared on the company website and a telephone number was made available for anyone to ring in with questions.
Station manager Joe Lamonby said: “Obtaining permission to start decommissioning is a major milestone for the station. An awful lot of planning has been going on, but it now means that we can physically begin to progress things.
“We gave an undertaking when the Environmental Statement was produced to keep the community informed of our proposals. We have done that and we will continue to update people on progress.”
Bridgwater MP Ian Liddell-Grainger said: “I am delighted Hinkley Point A has been given permission to go ahead with its decommissioning programme. The station has put a lot of effort into keeping local people, including myself, well informed of what is due to happen there and I am now looking forward to seeing progress on the site as work gets under way.”
All thermal insulation is due to be removed from the station over the next four years in one of the largest contracts of its type ever let in the UK. As the station was designed in the 1950s and built in the 1960s, a lot of the insulation contains asbestos, although some of it has been replaced over the years. The removal will be carried out under stringent safety conditions using specialist personnel in strict accordance with the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations. It will be removed from site – again under strict conditions – to controlled licensed sites for disposal.
Decommissioning Hinkley Point A ultimately involves the total clearance of the power station site. The early phase, which will last for several years, will involve alterations to the two reactor buildings, the removal of all other buildings – including the giant turbine hall - and construction of a new store to contain packaged radioactive waste until a national repository for disposal of that waste is available. This waste has been generated during the life of the station and includes fuel can debris, filter sludges and resins. No waste from other sites will be stored there. The two reactor buildings will be weatherproofed and made secure until they are removed in around 100 years’ time and the site totally cleared.
Throughout the whole process safety to the public, workforce and protection of the environment, will remain the top priority.
Defuelling of the two reactors is nearly 50 per cent complete and once finished 99 per cent of the radioactivity will have gone from the site.
A decision was made on business grounds in May 2000 to close
Hinkley Point A ahead of its planned shut-down date. By then
the station, which started generating in 1965 – had produced
enough electricity to supply the whole of the UK’s domestic
needs for 12 months.
Also see Environmental Statement
