Background: The Beginnings of Nuclear Power in the UK
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Loading ...By Miriam Katz
This article will be part of a series on nuclear power. Nuclear power is starting to have a renaissance due to decreased availability of fossil fuels, environmental concerns, and climate change. According to the World Nuclear Association, China is planning to increase sixfold the amount of electricity it derives from nuclear plants by 2020. There is also talk in the UK of more nuclear power plants. Given this latter fact, it is important to look at the start of nuclear power in the UK.
On the 17th of October, 1956, the Queen unveiled the world’s first commercial nuclear power plant, Calder Hall at 12:16 PM. Calder Hall was situated on the west coast of Cumbria, 15 miles from the town of Workington. Workington was the first town in the UK to receive electricity because of nuclear power. Within 4 hours, according to the BBC, the power had reached London via the national grid. Calder Hall is a relatively small nuclear plant with just 40 megawatts (MW) of electricity generated at a cost of £35 million. Modern nuclear power plants can generate more than 1200 MW. In fact, much of the generation at Calder Hall was actually heat that was used on site. Calder Hall also produced hypodermic needles and radio cobalt for cancer treatment.
Calder Hall was the first reactor to use the magnox technology, which meant that the fuel cans were made out of magnesium alloy. One of the most important things about this technology was that unenriched uranium was used, which meant two things: firstly, refueling had to happen very often and secondly, there was very little pressure inside, meaning that an explosion was extremely unlikely. This occurred because the coolant for the reactor was gas, unlike the Chernobyl plant, which used steam. However, despite these positive attributes, magnox plants also emitted a high amount of radiation. At the Dungeness plant in Kent, which also used the magnox technology, people in nearby areas were exposed to half as much radiation as recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection.
In 2003, the Calder Hall plant was closed. The decommissioning process will take approximately 100 years, according to the Guardian. The decommissioning process is divided up into three stages. The first stage, which takes ten years, involves the removal of the buildings such as the cooling towers and workshops. After this, the building has to sit for about 100 years in order for radiation levels to drop to safe levels. Then, the third stage involves the removal of the reactors. The total cost of this is approximately £1 billion. Across the UK, decommissioning is expected to cost around £73 billion; however, costs will most likely go up as the nuclear waste with the highest amount of radioactivity is retrieved. This type of nuclear waste cannot be retrieved by workers and thus, robotic arms are used.
One the main issues of decommissioning is what to do with the waste. According to the David Suzuki Foundation in Canada, nuclear waste can stay dangerous for up to 250,000 years. There is still not any proven way to dispose of it safely. The British government has suggested a geological facility, which entails putting the waste deep inside a rock formation. However, there are many concerns about monitoring the waste and whether the waste might seep out. This solution has also been proposed in Canada, but it has yet to be tried in any country.
Thus concludes the first article on nuclear power in this series, which will contain three articles. The second will concern the financial costs of nuclear power plants and the third will examine the environmental aspects of nuclear power, including the emission of greenhouse gases.
This article has been written by Miriam Katz. Miriam is a member of The Sustainability Writers Network (TSWN).
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