Decontamination milestone reached at Bradwell
The NDA welcomes Magnox Ltd's successful decontamination of more than 10,000 square metres of walls, floors and ceilings at the site of a former nuclear power station in Essex.
Emptied pond at Bradwell site in 2012
The complex clean-up, which covers an area similar to a rugby field, followed 4 years of hard work after draining and stabilising ‘ponds’, in 2012. These ponds were previously used to temporarily store and cool used nuclear fuel before it was sent to Sellafield for reprocessing.
Since 2012, Magnox Ltd, the Site Licence Company responsible for managing the Bradwell site, has continued to work to remove redundant equipment and decontaminate the rest of the associated buildings and infrastructure.
NDA’s Pete Lutwyche, Chief Operating Officer, said:
The Magnox Ltd team has worked well to reach this milestone that reduces hazard on the Bradwell site. This achievement is another excellent example of a project delivering on time and to budget. We will be working with the team to ensure that the lessons learned from tackling this challenge are shared across our wider estate.
Trevor Frost, Magnox Ltd’s Ponds Project Manager, said:
This has been a major achievement in preparing the site for eventual closure. During the project more than 2.5km of pipework was deplanted and more than 120 tonnes of metal waste was recovered and appropriately disposed of.
I am extremely proud of the team which has safely delivered this project to time and budget.
One of the next phases of work will be to demolish the redundant ponds building and remaining ancillary buildings, followed by installation of weatherproof cladding over the remaining buildings.
This latest success follows the recent decontamination of underground waste vaults and weatherproof cladding of the reactor buildings.
Scott Raish, Bradwell Closure Director from Magnox Ltd, added:
The learning gained from reaching these milestones is invaluable as we move into our next phases of work on site and take another important step towards care and maintenance.