As the tier 1 management and operations contractor on the Hinkley Point A site, we are contracted by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to manage the day-to-day activities of the site licensee company Magnox Electric Ltd.

Decommissioning challenge

Following closure, defuelling Hinkley Point A's pressure vessels, the largest in the UK Magnox fleet of power stations, involved the removal of some 72,000 fuel elements and the transportation of 280 fuel flasks to Sellafield - a progamme achieved safely and four months ahead of schedule, saving both money and resource. And Hinkley Point A is the first site to undertake major decommissioning work in parallel with defuelling.

Magnox Electric Ltd plans to build on this excellent commercial and safety record as preparations are underway for the care and maintenance phase of the decommissioning programme. Future challenges include dismantling, demolition and waste management to remove most radioactive and non-radioactive plant and buildings. This will result in the significant hazard reduction of asbestos and oil. In addition, new facilities will be designed and constructed to cater for areas such as intermediate level waste retrieval, processing and storage and low level waste management.

The reactor buildings themselves will be put into a passively safe and secure state and will remain in a quiescent state for a prolonged period until the end of the care and maintenance period when all remaining buildings will be removed, the site delicensed and made available for re-use.

Delivering value

Having successfully defuelled the Hinkley Point A power station, we are now focused on the care and maintenance preparation phase of the decommissioning programme.

Key achievements

• Removal of 71,828 irradiated fuel elements from the two steel reactor vessels four months ahead of schedule
• The reassessment of the design of the intermediate level waste store, achieving a potential saving of £10 million
• The redesign of the method for decontaminating the pond skips identifying a potential saving of £6.4 million
• The re-use of an existing site building for low level waste processing resulting in a potential saving of £3 million
• Isolation of redundant electrical loads and 214 batteries (weighing 52,450 kg) removed and sent for safe disposal plus demolition of the battery house three years ahead of schedule
• Installation of the new Town Mains Water Reservoir
• Establishment of a Work Authorisation Control Office
• In September 2005, the site received reaccreditation for Investors in People from Somerset Training and Enterprise Council

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