Berkeley nuclear power station
F1
Decommissioned Reactors ( gross ):
The nuclear power plant Berkeley was one of the first British nuclear power stations and is located in Berkeley ( Gloucestershire ), England in the UK on the eastern bank of the Severn. The power plant site is 27 acres in size. At present, there is the power plant in the decommissioning phase. The owner is the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the operator Magnox Electric Limited.
History
It was the first nuclear power plant in the UK, which was built exclusively for commercial purposes. Construction of the two reactors was on 1 January 1957.
Construction of the laboratories in 1959, 1960 the building was completed.
On 12 June 1962, the first reactor block was first synchronized with the power grid and took the same day commercial operation on. On 24 June 1962, the second reactor block was first synchronized with the power grid, on 20 October 1962, he also went into commercial operation. On 26 October 1988, the second reactor block was turned off. On March 31, 1989, the first block followed. After 27 years of successful operation, the plant was shut. It was the world's first nuclear power plant of this type, which was finally shut down.
In 1992, the removal of spent fuel from the power plant was completed, which lasted since 1989. Since the design of the reactors is different than any other Magnox reactors, decommissioning further work is necessary. The fuel elements were delivered, the cooling ponds were drained and cleaned and the turbine hall was dismantled and demolished. The demolition has lasted for sixteen years. 84 877 spent fuel assemblies were transported to Sellafield - the Defuelling was completed 14 weeks ahead of schedule in 1992. The Caesium Removal Plant ( CRP) was shut down.
The following operational and decommissioning steps:
Reactors
The two reactors are Magnox reactors of the first generation in the UK. They have a net output of 138 MWe and a gross capacity of 166 MWe. Each reactor had 3,275 fuel channels in each channel were 13 fuel assemblies. There were included 132 control rods. The reactors were operated with natural uranium. The reactor was carbon dioxide refrigerant (CO2).
The location on the east bank of the Severn was chosen because so was a unlimited supply of cooling water. The electricity generated was enough to supply a city like Bristol. Currently, 209 people are employed at the power plant.
Data of the reactor units
The nuclear power plant Berkeley has a total of two blocks: