Chapelcross - First Reactor Fully Defuelled
Magnox has hit a major decommissioning milestone this week when the first of the four reactors on site was fully defuelled.
Reactor 3 has now had all 9,245 fuel elements removed and this will be closely followed by Reactor 4, which is due to be fully defuelled by the beginning of May.
Following formal permission to start defuelling from the Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR) in July 2008, and the first flask being sent to Sellafield for reprocessing in April 2009, there has been safe, consistent progress made with the defuelling programme at the Chapelcross Site.
A total of 38,075 fuel elements are being systematically removed from all four reactors and safely despatched for reprocessing to Sellafield in approximately 260 flasks.
Currently, 23,203 fuel elements have now been removed from the site in 158 flasks, each containing about 150 fuel elements. This represents 61% of the fuel at Chapelcross, and the defuelling project is on course for completion by June 2013. Completion of the defuelling programme will result in 99% of the higher activity inventory being removed from the site.
Tim Dunham, Chapelcross Plant Manager in charge of the defuelling project said, “A major milestone has been achieved with the first reactor completely defuelled and we continue to make significant progress on the major task of defuelling the Chapelcross site and is a testament to the skilled and dedicated workforce currently focused on the defuelling project.”
