Nuke plant ‘milestone’ reached

Jul 1 2009 by Sharon Liptrott, Dumfries Standard Wednesday

THE 1,000th nuclear fuel rod has been removed from reactor one in a new milestone in the decommissioning and defuelling programme at Chapelcross.

It accounts for around 10 per cent of the 9,938 fuel elements which have to be moved from the reactor at the power plant near Annan and taken to Sellafield in Cumbria for reprocessing. The other three reactors each have more than 9,000 rods of which none have been removed.

The first M2 flask of fuel containing 116 nuclear rods left the site in April and, to date, seven other flasks have made this same trip. It means Chapelcross remains on target to remove all 38,075 fuel elements from the four reactors by the end of 2011.

And it could be done with 30 less trips to Sellafield than originally estimated.

Chapelcross has not produced electricity since 2004 and it has taken five years of planning to get to this key stage in the defuelling programme.

Tim Dunham, Chapelcross defuelling and operations manager said: “Not only have we already defuelled about 10 per cent of the fuel from Reactor 1, but recently we have also been able to safely increase the maximum number of fuel elements carried in a flask from 144 to 164.

“What this means in real terms is that our original forecast of approximately 270 flask movements over the next two and a half years to Sellafield, could potentially be reduced to just 240 flask movements.”

The flasks are put onto a large vehicle for the journey by road and train to Sellafield in Cumbria where the fuel elements will be reprocessed.

Three flasks are due to leave Chapelcross every two weeks.

Site Director Dave Wilson says the final commissioning of reactor three is “progressing well” and the first fuel elements are on target to be removed next month, with defuelling to be completed by August 2010.

The fuel routes for the nuclear rods in reactors two and three are due to be approved this summer with the rods removed during 2010 and 2011.

After the defuelling, the four reactor buildings will not be demolished for at least another 100 years.