Decommissioning of Magnox Electric power stations in the UK

Three of the UK's commercial nuclear power stations are now being decommissioned. The three, Berkeley in Gloucestershire, Trawsfynydd in North Wales and Hunterston A in Scotland, have ceased production after many years of successful and safe operation. The stations formed part of Britain's first generation of nuclear power plants built under the Government's White Paper proposals of 1955 (Cmnd 9389). All were of the Magnox design and followed the two Magnox reactor stations at Calder Hall and Chapelcross built in the mid 1950s. The main differences in principle of operation were that for the CEGB the major requirement was to embody on-load refuelling to establish high load factors. The IEE's Working Party for Nuclear Power organised Discussion Meetings combined with Technical Visits to these three nuclear power stations. This article reports on the meetings and examines the similarities and outlines the main differences between the decommissioning strategies and activities of the three stations.