Latest news with #decommissioning
BBC News
a day ago
- General
- BBC News
Plans to demolish turbine hall at Sellafield site
Proposals to demolish a building that was once part of the world's first full-scale nuclear power station have been Council is considering plans to pull down the Calder Hall turbine hall A (CHTHA) building on the Sellafield building is redundant and has "reached the end of its useful life", the application stated, adding: "Sellafield is currently undertaking option studies into future development options."Hailed as the dawn of the atomic age, Calder Hall produced electricity for 47 years and stopped generating power in 2003. Opening in 1956, Calder Hall consisted of four Magnox reactors, two turbine halls and four cooling towers were demolished using explosives in 2007 as part of the plant's decommissioning process. The overall size of the turbine hall is 245ft (75m) long by 121ft (37m), with the switch room extending a further 33ft (10m) out from the east side of the overall are steam turbines and condensers inside which are supported on reinforced concrete platforms, according to the demolition application covering letter, the Local Democracy Reporting Service the potential future redevelopment at the site, they proposed removing the building superstructure and retaining the existing concrete foundations."Any future development proposals will be presented to relevant stakeholders and will be subject to formal planning application and consent from the local planning authority," the letter added. Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Plan to remove 34 turbines from Easter Ross wind farm
Plans have been submitted to remove 34 turbines from a hillside in Easter Ross and replace them with 10 new ones - more than twice the 1, near Evanton, has been operational since Nadara has proposed decommissioning the existing turbines, which have a maximum blade tip height of 60m (197ft), and installing new ones measuring up to 180m (590ft).The company has submitted its proposals to Highland Council, but the Scottish government would have the final say on the project. Nadara has sent Highland Council a proposal of application notice (PAN) outlining its plans.A control building, substation and underground cabling have also been company said the new turbines would have installed capacity of about 60MW.
Reuters
06-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
SpaceX will not decommission Dragon, Musk says
June 5 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk said on Thursday that his rocket company SpaceX will not decommission its Dragon spacecraft just hours after stating that the company would begin decommissioning amid his escalating feud with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Free Malaysia Today
05-06-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
KD Pendekar among 3 navy vessels decommissioned today
KD Pendekar was one of three vessels formally decommissioned in a ceremony officiated by navy chief Zulhelmy Ithnain at the naval base in Lumut, Perak. PETALING JAYA : The navy today decommissioned a ship that sank off the coast of Johor after it hit an underwater object in August last year. KD Pendekar was one of three vessels formally decommissioned in a ceremony officiated by navy chief Zulhelmy Ithnain at the naval base in Lumut, Perak. The other two vessels, KD Laksamana Tun Abdul Jamil and KD Laksamana Tan Pusmah, were also retired from active service, the navy said in a Facebook post. It added that the decommissioning of the three vessels is part of a broader fleet modernisation initiative under the #15to5 transformation plan. On Aug 25, 2024, the KD Pendekar was reported to have struck a submerged object and started flooding before it sank in the South China Sea two nautical miles southeast of Tanjung Penyusop, in Kota Tinggi, Johor on the same day. Three days later, a navy crew member was reported to have died while trying to recover the wreckage of KD Pendekar. The vessel was successfully refloated in October 2024 through a salvage operation that was completed despite facing several challenges. A special investigation board set up to determine the cause of the incident found that KD Pendekar's sinking was due to a navigational error and the vessel's advanced age. The navy today said that with a total sailing distance of 820,077.64 nautical miles, the KD Pendekar ranks among the most extensively deployed assets in its history. It is part of the navy's first fast attack craft squadron and was commissioned in 1979. KD Laksamana Tun Abdul Jamil, a corvette-class warship built in 1982, was acquired by Malaysia in 1995 and commissioned in 1997. Its sister ship, KD Laksamana Tan Pusmah, entered service in 1999 and has logged 315,907.6 nautical miles.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Sellafield could leak until 2050s, MPs warn
The UK's largest nuclear site could continue leaking radioactive water until the 2050s, MPs have warned, while its clean-up operations struggle to progress quickly enough. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) criticised the speed of decommissioning work at Sellafield in Cumbria, citing "cost overruns and continuing safety concerns" in a report published on Wednesday. Although the committee noted there were "signs of improvement", PAC chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said Sellafield continued to present "intolerable risks". The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) acknowledged the leak at its Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS) was its "single biggest environmental issue". The MSSS, which the NDA described as "the most hazardous building in the UK", has been leaking radioactive water into the ground since 2018, releasing enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool every three years. It is likely to continue leaking until the oldest section of the building has been emptied in the 2050s, about a decade later than previously expected. Sir Geoffrey said: "As with the fight against climate change, the sheer scale of the hundred-year timeframe of the decommissioning project makes it hard to grasp the immediacy of safety hazards and cost overruns that delays can have. "Every day at Sellafield is a race against time to complete works before buildings reach the end of their life. "Our report contains too many signs that this is a race that Sellafield risks losing." Pointing to the fact that Sellafield Ltd had missed most of its annual targets for retrieving waste from buildings, including the MSSS, the committee warned: "The consequence of this underperformance is that the buildings are likely to remain extremely hazardous for longer." A spokeswoman for the NDA said the "leak in the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo is contained and does not pose a risk to the public". "Regulators accept that the current plan to tackle the leak is the most effective one." Sir Geoffrey said it was of "vital importance that the government grasp the daily urgency of the work taking place at Sellafield and shed any sense of a far-off date of completion for which no-one currently living is responsible". "Sellafield's risks and challenges are those of the present day. "There are some early indications of some improvement in Sellafield's delivery, which our report notes. "The government must do far more to hold all involved immediately accountable to ensure these do not represent a false dawn, and to better safeguard both the public purse and the public itself." Sellafield ceased generating electricity in 2003 and, in addition to work cleaning up the site, now processes and stores nuclear waste from power plants around the UK. The government plans to create an underground geological disposal facility (GDF) to store nuclear waste for the thousands of years it will take to become safe. But the committee said delays in creating the GDF, which is now not expected to be complete until the late 2050s, meant more costs for Sellafield. NDA chief executive David Peattie said it welcomed the report, adding it took the "findings seriously and the safety of the site and the wellbeing of our people will always be our highest priorities". "We are pleased they recognise improvements in delivering major projects and that we are safely retrieving waste from all four highest hazard facilities." The PAC expressed concern there was a "sub-optimal culture" at Sellafield and called on the NDA to publish information about the prevalence and perception of bullying in its annual report. The NDA spokeswoman said: "We're committed to an open and respectful culture and we've taken decisive action to enable this, including strengthening our whistleblowing policy." The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said it "expected the highest standards of safety and security as former nuclear sites are dismantled, and the regulator is clear that public safety is not compromised at Sellafield". "This is underpinned by monthly performance reviews and increased responsibility for overseeing major project performance, enabling more direct scrutiny and intervention," a spokeswoman for the department said. "We have zero tolerance of bullying, harassment and offensive behaviour in the workplace - we expect Sellafield and the NDA to operate on this basis, investigate allegations and take robust action when needed." Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Leak is Sellafield's 'biggest environmental issue' GMB warns over potential nuclear plant Budget cuts Nuclear site runs up 'considerable' costs - report Plan for new building to store radioactive waste Sellafield Ltd Public Accounts Committee
