Trawsfynydd nuclear power station

The power station, which takes its name from the nearby village of Trawsfynydd, was designed by Basil Spence. The construction, which was undertaken by a consortium involving Crompton Parkinson, International Combustion, Fairey Engineering and Richardsons Westgarth, and known as the Atomic Power Constructions (APC),[2] began in July 1959, and both of the reactors were in operation by March 1965, with the station opening fully in October 1968, at a cost of £103 million.[3] It had two Magnox reactors producing 470 megawatts (MW) in total.[3] The reactors were supplied by APC and the turbines by Richardsons Westgarth.[3] The civil engineering work was undertaken by Holland, Hannen & Cubitts[4] and Trollope & Colls.[5] The architectural consultant for the buildings was Sir Basil Spence and the landscape architect was Sylvia Crowe.[6]

Nuclear flasks were transported to Trawsfynydd on a section of the former Bala to Blaenau Ffestiniog railway that had been closed in January 1961. A single track was restored northwards with an entirely new line through the centre of Blaenau Ffestiniog that connected to the Conwy Valley branch. In 1963-4 a "Goliath" gantry crane was installed over sidings about ¹⁄₂ mi (0.80 km) east of the power station.[7][8][9][10] Beginning on 20 April 1964, nuclear flasks could be transported by rail between destinations such as Sellafield in Cumbria. The last regular departure was on 8 August 1995.[11] The last train to carry nuclear material from Trawsfynydd left on 22 April 1997 hauled by EWS Loco 37426.[12] The line was subsequently mothballed.[13] In 2016 enthusiasts, who want to create a heritage railway, began clearing vegetation along the route.[14]

Trawsfynydd was shut down in 1991. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has the responsibility of decommissioning the site. The work is expected to last decades.[15]

Beginning in 1993, the highly-radioactive spent fuel rods were removed from both Magnox reactors and sent by rail to Sellafield. This was completed in 1997. Intermediate level waste - such as on the walls of the cooling ponds or pipes - has been carefully removed using robots over the next decades. Contaminated material is stored in a specially-designed building on the site.[15] It will eventually be removed for deep burial in the 2040s. Between 2020 and 2026, the top parts of the two reactor buildings will be partially demolished to reduce their height,[16] but the steel reactor cores - that housed the fuel rods - will not be removed because they are still far too radioactive. The final clearance of the site is scheduled to begin in 2071.[16] By 2083 the area is expected to have been restored to its pre-nuclear state; 124 years after construction started and 92 years after the closure of Trawsfynydd power station.[1]

• Wylfa Nuclear Power Station, shutdown Magnox reactor in Anglesey
• Energy policy of the United Kingdom
• Nuclear power in the United Kingdom
• Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom

References

Bibliography

• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2010). Bala to Llandudno: Featuring Blaenau Ffestiniog. Midhurst, West Sussex: Middleton Press (MD). ISBN 978 1 906008 87 1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Southern, D. W. (1995). Bala Junction to Blaenau Ffestiniog (Scenes from the Past, Railways of North Wales, No. 25). Stockport: Foxline Publishing. ISBN 1 8701 19 34 7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

• Nuclear Decommissioning Authority site (Trawsfynydd page)
• Trawsfynydd , Nuclear Engineering International wall chart, January 1961
• Some photos of Trawsfynydd power station
• Aerial views of the power station, via The People's Collection