Trawsfynydd nuclear power station

Trawsfynydd nuclear power station
Location of Trawsfynydd nuclear power station in Wales
Country Wales, United Kingdom
Location Trawsfynydd, Gwynedd
Coordinates 52°55′29.51″N 3°56′54.38″W / 52.9248639°N 3.9484389°W / 52.9248639; -3.9484389Coordinates: 52°55′29.51″N 3°56′54.38″W / 52.9248639°N 3.9484389°W / 52.9248639; -3.9484389
Status Closed
Construction began 1959
Commission date 1965
Decommission date 1991
Construction cost £103 million
Owner(s) Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
Operator(s) Magnox Ltd
Nuclear power station
Reactor type Magnox
Reactor supplier Atomic Power Constructions
Power generation
Units decommissioned 2 x 235 MW

Trawsfynydd nuclear power station is a disused Magnox power station situated on the north shore of Llyn Trawsfynydd in Gwynedd, Wales. It is significant for being the only Nuclear power station in the UK which was not built on the coast; the plant drew water instead from the nearby lake.

History

The power station 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),[1] 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.[2] It had two Magnox reactors producing 470 megawatts (MW) in total.[2] The reactors were supplied by APC and the turbines by Richardsons Westgarth.[2] The civil engineering work was undertaken by Holland, Hannen & Cubitts[3] and Trollope & Colls.[4] The architectural consultant for the buildings was Sir Basil Spence and the landscape architect was Sylvia Crowe.[5]

Both have been shut down since 1991; the site is in the process of being decommissioned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.[6]

Transporting nuclear materials

The Bala to Blaenau Ffestiniog railway line had closed completely in January 1961, but its tracks and infrastructure had been mothballed against the possibility of freight or military traffic resuming. The line had a siding approximately half a mile west of the power station. In 1963-4 a "Goliath" gantry crane was installed over the siding.[7][8][9][10] A single track was restored northwards and a wholly new connection was laid in the centre of Blaenau Ffestiniog between the restored line and the extant Conwy Valley Line. This allowed nuclear flasks to be sent and received by rail to destinations such as Sellafield.

The line and siding opened on 20 April 1964 and served the power station until the last regular train of flasks was dispatched on 8 August 1995.[11] One further final train of nuclear material headed north from the loading point on 22 April 1997, hauled by EWS Loco 37426.[12] The line was subsequently mothballed once more.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ The UK Magnox and AGR Power Station Projects
  2. 1 2 3 Nuclear Power Plants in the UK - Scotland and Wales
  3. ↑ An historical survey of Cubitts, from the Company's inception in 1810 to the present day Page 25, Cubitts, 1975
  4. ↑ Trollope & Colls at the National Archives
  5. ↑ Site record for Trawsfynydd on RCAHMS index for Sir Basil Spence archive
  6. ↑ "How do you close a nuclear power station?". BBC. 28 October 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  7. ↑ The siding and Goliath, via 2D53
  8. ↑ Mitchell & Smith 2010, Photo 28.
  9. ↑ Southern 1995, p. 71.
  10. ↑ A flask being loaded onto a railway wagon, via flickr
  11. ↑ Three flasks passing Blaenau on 8 August 1995, via flickr
  12. ↑ Mitchell & Smith 2010, Photo 66.
  13. ↑ "Inquiry into radioactivity scare". The Independent. 22 April 1997. Retrieved 9 August 2016.

Sources

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