Trawsfynydd nuclear power station

History

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), 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 £103million. It had two Magnox reactors producing 470megawatts (MW) in total from four turbines, each rated at 145MWe. The reactors were supplied by APC and the turbines by Richardsons Westgarth. and Trollope & Colls. The architectural consultant for the buildings was Sir Basil Spence and the landscape architect was Sylvia Crowe. The setting for the power station which Crowe developed is designated Grade II* on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. Four Paxman 12YLC diesel engines, each driving a 1.2MW Crompton Parkinson alternator were installed for emergency standby duties.

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 1963-64, a "Goliath" gantry crane was installed over sidings about 1/2 mi east of the power station. Beginning on 20 April 1964, nuclear flasks could be transported by rail between destinations such as Sellafield in Cumbria. The last train to carry nuclear material from Trawsfynydd left on 22 April 1997 hauled by EWS Loco 37426. The line was subsequently mothballed. In 2016, enthusiasts, who want to create a heritage railway, began clearing vegetation along the route but have since been halted and are negotiating a new licence to clear.

Decommissioning

Trawsfynydd was shut down in 1991. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority subsidiary Nuclear Restoration Services, formerly Magnox Ltd, is decommissioning the site. The work is expected to last decades.

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 is being carefully removed using robots over the next decades. Contaminated material is stored in a specially designed building on the site.

From autumn 2025, Costain will carry out a £70million four year programme to reduce the height of both reactor buildings from 54 to. Final clearance of the site is scheduled to begin in 2071. By 2083, the area was 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.

Reestablishment

The Welsh government has decided to redevelop the plant using small-scale reactors, as a step toward meeting the UK's targets for reducing carbon emissions. In 2021, the government chose Mike Tynan of Westinghouse to lead a company tasked with developing the new reactors. On 20 May 2022, the government announced that the NDA will work with Cwmni Egino (the Welsh Development Agency company) to develop land adjacent to the site for a 300MW small modular reactor (SMR). Cwmni Egino said it will now discuss with interested parties and hoped to announce plans within one year. In December 2022, a second consortium presented its proposals to use their own design of SMR in competition to the original bid.

Citations

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;Bibliography

References

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