Lifetime strategy
The current preferred strategy for decommissioning Berkeley power station like all UK Magnox nuclear power stations is deferred site clearance, allowing for total site clearance around 100 years after cessation of generation. It minimises risk to workers, public and the environment, minimises waste volumes, is technically straight forward and makes financial sense.
Magnox South is applying its knowledge and expertise to accelerate the decommissioning work plan which doesn’t preclude a reduction in the 100-year period to total site clearance.
Berkeley’s decommissioning programme is already well underway. The station’s layout differs from other Magnox stations in that its main boilers were external to the reactor buildings and connected by long top and bottom gas ducts requiring more extensive decommissioning work than will be expected at other sites.
The decommissioning plan at Berkeley
1989 - 1992 Defuelling
- Removal of all spent nuclear fuel, representing 99% of radioactivity on site
1992 - 2011 Care & Maintenance Preparations
- Streamlining the site by removing and demolishing facilities not requiring storage due to high levels of radioactivity
- Retrieval, processing and packaging of legacy wastes
- Safe and passive storage of all packaged wastes
- Low level waste transported to the Low level Waste Repository in Cumbria
- Contents of non-radioactive facilities such as the offices and turbine hall reused or recycled where possible
- Erection of temporary buildings, including those required to facilitate retrieval and packaging of existing radioactive waste
- Cladding the remaining buildings with durable materials to provide safe, secure and weatherproof structures in readiness for passive storage
- Partial site delicensing involving a contaminated land study and programme of surveys
2011 - 2074 Care & Maintenance
- Site monitored for reactor conditions and security as the radioactivity inside the reactors naturally decays
- Radiological and environmental monitoring
- Regular inspection of site conditions and maintenance where necessary
- All stored packaged waste transported for permanent disposal off site in line with UK strategy
2074 - 2083 Final Site Clearance
- Design, construction and commissioning of a waste management facility
- All plants including the reactor vessels, heat exchangers and primary circuit low enough in activity to be accessed and dismantled using routine equipment
- Demolition of the waste management facility
- Final landscaping
- Site is relicenced or delicenced and returned, clean and safe for a new purpose
Berkeley Lifetime Plan
