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COMMUNITY > BRADWELL NEWS |
NEW NUCLEAR POWER STATION AT BRADWELL British Energy to hold public meetings on new nuclear build at Bradwell COME AND HAVE YOUR SAY British Energy, the UK’s largest electricity generator, is to hold seven public meetings in and around Bradwell to discuss the potential for new nuclear build at the site. The company owns land to the east of the Magnox station which it is assessing for potential new nuclear development. British Energy is also considering new build at three other sites – Sizewell in Suffolk, Dungeness in Kent and Hinkley Point in Somerset. The meetings will provide updates on the company’s plans and a presentation from Royal Haskoning, an environmental consulting firm carrying out impact assessments for British Energy’s potential new build projects. Gareth Brett, head new build development, said: “We want to talk to the local community to ensure all voices are heard before we make a formal planning application to the Department of Energy and Climate Change.” “We believe a new power station will bring significant benefits to the region in terms of employment, infrastructure improvements and investment in the community.” The meetings will be on: Wednesday 12 November, Minerva Centre, Mundon – 6.30pm – 9.00pm Thursday 13 November, Congregational Church Hall, Tollesbury – 2.30pm – 5.00pm Tuesday 18 November, The Mersea Centre, West Mersea – 6.00pm – 8.30pm Wednesday 19 November, Village Hall, Bradwell-on-Sea – 6.30pm – 9.00pm Tuesday 25 November, Memorial Hall, Southminster - meeting 2.30pm – 5.00pm AND drop-in session - 6.00pm – 8.00pm Wednesday 26 November, Village Hall, Steeple – 10.00am – 12.30pm Wednesday 26 November, Village Hall, Cold Norton – 6.30pm – 9.00pm To access more information go to www.british-energy.com and click on the New Nuclear Build section. Due to anticipated demand, we are asking residents to register their attendance at the meetings in advance. This can be done by phone on 0800 980 3197, by email to mail@bradwellnewbuild.co.uk or on-line at www.british-energy.com. For more information please contact: Martin Pearce, public relations officer for south east England, British Energy Tel: 0207 266 8390 or 07834 681869. Email: martin.pearce@british-energy.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you'd like to see an article covering the debate over the use of nuclear reactors as power sources click on this link to go to the Wikipedia - Nuclear power debate Alternatively to see some of the research that has been done on this highly complex and controversial issue on behalf of the British government - you can look at this paper from the Sustainable Development Commission WMTC is not responsible for the content or views of external internet sites. |
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Bradwell Local Community Liaison Council will be holding a meeting on Wednesday 03 December 2008 (10:00 - 13:00) at the Minerva Centre, Roundbush Farm, Burnham Road, Mundon CM9 6NP. This meeting provides the local community with an opportunity to find out about what is happening at Bradwell Site and future plans. This meeting is open to members of the public. Please call 01621 873565 or email rhiannon.williams@magnoxsouthsites.com for further information and to confirm attendance [The LCLC is an independent, local community body acting as a link between Bradwell Reactor Site and its neighbours. The meeting is open to all members of the public.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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The Magnox-type nuclear power stations were the first generation of nuclear reactors in Britain. The word 'Magnox' comes from Magnesium non-oxidising and refers to the alloy of magnesium and aluminium used as cladding for unenriched uranium fuel. Bradwell Power Station was officially opened by the Lord Lieutenant of Essex on 5th May 1963. On a typical day it produced enough power to serve the electrical needs of three towns the size of Colchester. Bradwell's land holding totals 298 hectares. The Station sits on the south eastern edge of the Blackwater estuary in isolated countryside next to a wartime airfield and about a mile from the village of Bradwell on Sea. Magnox Electric Ltd is in day-to-day control of all activities on site, under the management of the British Nuclear Group. The station ceased generating electricity in March 2002. Defuelling of the Reactors began in March 2003 and all the fuel elements had been removed by December 2005. That same year the NDA - the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority took over ownership of the site. Bradwell site is now in full decommissioning mode. The Cooling Water pumps have been removed and work is underway on the demolition of the Turbine Hall. The site stopped using the Davair Oil Burner last August and the oil is now taken offsite. The Asbestos on site is removed and taken by road to an Asbestos landfill in Ipswich. Work is still ongoing on the potential for cutting down the period for decommissioning - this is likely to be longer than 25 years but less than the current 100 year plan. The LCLC is an independent community-based body that is funded by the NDA. It operates under the principles of openness with the aim of being accessible to its communities. It is primarily site-focused but takes account of wider policy issues The primary purpose of the LCLC is to act as a proactive, two way channel of communication, gathering information and disseminating views, between the operator and the local community. It has a voting membership enlisted from democratically elected representatives. It is funded by the NDA The LCLC meets twice a year usually at a venue near Maldon. It is a large committee attended by consultants from several government bodies, BNFL Site managers, Emergency Services plus representatives of most local Borough, District, Parish and Town Councillors around the Blackwater estuary and the Dengie peninsular. The Public are invited to attend and take part in discussions. Only elected members are allowed to vote on matters of policy. The present Chairman is Cllr Brian Main - Chairman of Bradwell Parish Council. Cllr Sylvia Wargent has represented West Mersea Town Council on the LCLC for the past ten years. LATEST NEWS |
Report by Cllr Sylvia Wargent Local Community Liaison Council member for West Mersea Town Council Just what is a Dissolution Plant? In March a special meeting of the Liaison Committee was called to discuss this question and we were given a full description (with visual aids) of the method involved in disposing of the FED or Fuel Element Debris by “dissolution”. But first, a reminder that Bradwell site is subject to constraints by their “clients” the NDA – Nuclear Decommissioning Authority; the NII – Nuclear Installations Inspectorate; who give them their license to operate and the Environment Agency; who monitor all discharges. During the defuelling period all fuel rods were sent to Sellafield and the Bradwell site was completely defuelled by August 2006. Bradwell Engineers are now left to decommission the rest of the materials on site including the Fuel Element Debris. Just what is FED? FED is Fuel Element Debris, a Magnesium Oxide Alloy (hence the name MAGNOX) and comprises the metal cages that once surrounded the nuclear fuel rods in the Bradwell Reactors. Before the fuel rods could be sent away to Sellafield Reprocessing Plant these metal casings had to be removed; the resulting “debris” then became part of the nuclear waste problem needing to be dealt with at the Bradwell site. There are two possible methods of disposing of Fuel Element Debris – Encapsulation and Dissolution. Encapsulation means sealing the metal casings in concrete then storing hefty concrete blocks on site for up to a hundred years. But Bradwell Engineers have put forward Dissolution as the “Best Practical Environmental Option” for disposal; a sub group of the Liaison Committee visited Dungeness where a Dissolution Plant already operates. Dissolution is just as it sounds – the metal casings are “dissolved” down and after treatment subsequently washed away into the sea. If considered acceptable the proposed Dissolution Plant will be sited right beside the Reactors and directly over the vaults containing the debris. All the processes that FED goes through are carried out by robotics. First the FED is retrieved, sorted and then crushed (in the same way as crushing a car at a scrap metal yard). It is then stored in box like “vaults” on site. As FED produces a certain amount of potentially explosive hydrogen it must be constantly scrutinized and interlocking systems ensure that any fire hazard is kept to a minimum. The FED is then placed in vats and saturated with a mix of water and weak nitric acid for four hours and the resulting “liquor” then passed through an iron exchanger. Each stage is carefully monitored and when the radionuclide levels are considered to be at sufficiently low levels – the consequential liquid is discharged into the estuary. When (and if) the Dissolution Plant is running 60 kilograms of filtered and processed Fuel Element Debris will be discharged every six hours – 180 kilograms per day (this sounds a lot but is much less than when the site was operating or during defuelling). The operating life of the Dissolution Plant is reckoned to be about three and a half years. The next meeting of the Liaison Council is on the 25th June – the public are welcome to attend |
BUT..... Report by Cllr Sylvia Wargent Local Community Liaison Council representative for West Mersea Town Council Although nuclear power will deliver 4 to 5 per cent of UK energy it will be 2020 before the first new nuclear station will be completed and none have ever been built on time or on budget It is true that nuclear power stations do not emit carbon but no one has yet solved the problem of waste disposal. Each Reactor produces 20 to 30 tons of spent fuel per year which can remain radioactive for hundreds of years. What's more a nuclear option could distract attention from serious investment in renewable energies like solar - wind and tide NEW REACTORS WILL MOST LIKELY BE THE PWR TYPE PRESSURED WATER REACTORs The new power station Reactor is likely to be a PWR type (Pressured Water Reactor). These are similar to the ones that the Royal Navy use in submarines. Unlike the original Magnox Reactors at Bradwell they have "Secondary Containment" which mean that should the Reactor malfunction, it is still totally enclosed in a concrete sealed unit. DELAYS ON CLEAN UP We have been told that the cost of decommissioning all of Britains nuclear power stations is estimated to be in the region of £73 billion. Out of that £30 million has been allocated for cleaning up Bradwell - £2 million down on previous allocations A spokesman for the NDA - Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - has explained that due to a bottleneck in reprocessing work at Sellafield - scheduled work at Bradwell cannot proceed as planned and though decommissioning at Bradwell will continue it will be on a much smaller scale as priority must be given to "high hazard" sites such as Sellafield and Dounraey. It could be another 40 years before a Nuclear Waste Repository is built in Britain therefore it makes sense for Intermediate Level Waste remain in situ on Power Station sites British Energy - who own the land to the west of the present Bradwell site are seeking a big business partner to embark on a new nuclear building programme (four different reactor designs are being considered) British Energy are keen to keep people informed on the decision making process and hear views on the impact a new power station will have on the local community. There is to be a public meeting of the Colchester Borough Council Strategic Overview and Scrutiny Panel to discuss this issue at the MICA - 23rd September 2008 - 6 pm |
BRADWELL POWER STATION - PLANNING PROPOSALS FOR ON SITE INTERMEDIATE AND LOW LEVEL WASTE STORES The Town Council have recently received a planning proposal for an amendment to plans for the location of approved buildings for the treatment and storage of on site intermediate and low level radioactive waste and the reduction in size of an already approved building at variance to Condition 2 of original planning permission REPORT ON BRADWELL PUBLIC MEETING The Public meeting held at the MICA on Tuesday 22nd January was well attended. However - it was clear that many people had come to hear about the possibility of a new power station - which is not the remit of Magnox South and they would not commit themselves on this subject. Quite a few people said that they were not against a nuclear power station but had come to find out more. Questions were asked questions concerning the use of underground vaults for storage of fuel element debris (FED) and the intention to delay the retrieval of this debris for a further four years - until 2016. There are worries about fire or explosion if the material is left there for a long period of time. However the answers to questions on this subject seemed to indicate that the Bradwell site were not concerned about this potential hazard. However - we have since heard that the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate have not stated that they now are "satisified" with any safety case to justify storage of FED at Bradwell vaults beyond 2012. SALE OF BRITISH NUCLEAR FUELS State owned British Nuclear Fuels - BNFL - has been sold to Energy Solutions a company based in Salt Lake City - Utah. Included in the sale - Magnox Electric - who hold the license to decommission Bradwell on behalf of the NDA - the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - to which ownership of the Bradwell site was transferred in 2005 MORI POLL The Liaison Council recently commissioned a locall based MORI poll to determine the eventual "end state" of the Bradwell site. This poll received good feedback locally. The Chairman reported that the most favoured option for Bradwell was for an "undeveloped unlicensed site". In other words that the radiiation levels would be reduced to a level that people could eventually walk over the fields above the former site without danger from radiation. CUT IN FUNDING FOR POWER STATION Government funding made available to decommission Bradwell has been reduced from £50 million to £30 million. The Site Director confirmed that as a direct result of this cut the Waste Management team have had to slow down some of the decommissioning processes. The Government had promised that the number of years it could take to fully decommission Bradwell would be cut from 100years to something more like 50 or even 25 years - it looks increasingly like this will now be unlikely. |
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Bradwell at night |