Demolition contractor Erith has completed an 18-month project to fully demolish the turbine hall at Sizewell A nuclear power station, marking a milestone in the ongoing decommissioning of the site.
The football-pitch-sized hall has now been razed to the ground using innovative techniques, which allowed the project to be completed significantly faster than using traditional decommissioning and dismantling approaches.
The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) said that its collaborative engagement with Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS), the site’s licensee, helped to achieve efficiency savings in time and money throughout the project, which began in autumn 2023.
Up to 700kg of explosives were used last November to debilitate the four reinforced concrete turbine bases on which two 65-tonne turbogenerators stood. It was the largest amount of explosives ever used on British soil at a nuclear site.
Recycled metal
High-reach cranes and excavators were then used to remove rubble from the weakened turbine plinths and tear down the rest of the concrete structure.
A total of 11,000 tonnes of metal were removed during the demolition and deplanting process, the majority of which will be recycled and sold on, with the money to be used to offset future decommissioning work, the ONR said.
About 35 miles of cable and more than 17,000 tonnes of concrete and rubble have been removed from the turbine hall, fire station and electrical annexe structures. It will be crushed, processed and reused for ongoing construction projects.
The empty land that now lies where the flattened turbine hall once stood will eventually be restored and released for reuse.
Sizewell A was built in the 1960s and was officially opened in 1967. Its twin reactors were shut down at the end of 2006 after 40 years of electricity generation. The whole site is expected to be completely cleared by 2077.
With labour costs always rising, spending some 40 more years to clear the site
is going to keep electricity at a high price for our descendants when we / have
have gone. I am 84 now.
As a local boy from that area I hope the whole site won’t be cleared by 2077. Currently C is being built and will take ten years.