A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a generator that produces electricity. As of 2018, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported there were 450 nuclear power reactors in operation in 30 countries around the world.
Sellafield is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2020, activities at the site include nuclear fuel reprocessing, nuclear waste storage and nuclear decommissioning, and it is a former nuclear power generating site. The licensed site covers an area of 265 hectares and comprises more than 200 nuclear facilities and more than 1,000 buildings. It is Europe's largest nuclear site and has the most diverse range of nuclear facilities in the world situated on a single site.
Magnox is a type of nuclear power/production reactor that was designed to run on natural uranium with graphite as the moderator and carbon dioxide gas as the heat exchange coolant. It belongs to the wider class of gas-cooled reactors. The name comes from the magnesium-aluminium alloy used to clad the fuel rods inside the reactor. Like most other "Generation I nuclear reactors", the Magnox was designed with the dual purpose of producing electrical power and plutonium-239 for the nascent nuclear weapons program in Britain. The name refers specifically to the United Kingdom design but is sometimes used generically to refer to any similar reactor.
British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) was a nuclear energy and fuels company owned by the UK Government. It was a manufacturer of nuclear fuel, ran reactors, generated and sold electricity, reprocessed and managed spent fuel, and decommissioned nuclear plants and other similar facilities.
The year 1956 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Christopher Hinton, Baron Hinton of Bankside was a British nuclear engineer, and supervisor of the construction of Calder Hall, the world's first large-scale commercial nuclear power station.
Chapelcross nuclear power station is a decommissioned and partly demolished Magnox nuclear power station near Annan in Dumfries and Galloway in southwest Scotland, which was in operation from 1959 to 2004. It was the sister plant to the Calder Hall plant in Cumbria, England; both were commissioned and originally operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. The primary purpose of both plants was to produce weapons-grade plutonium for the UK's nuclear weapons programme, but they also generated electrical power for the National Grid.
The Shippingport Atomic Power Station was the world's first full-scale atomic electric power plant devoted exclusively to peacetime uses. It was located near the present-day Beaver Valley Nuclear Generating Station on the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States, about 25 miles (40 km) from Pittsburgh.
Nuclear Power Demonstration was the first Canadian nuclear power reactor, and the prototype for the CANDU reactor design. Built by Canadian General Electric, in partnership with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), Ontario Hydro and the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), it consisted of a single 22 MWe pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) unit located in Rolphton, Ontario, not far from AECL's Chalk River Laboratories. NPD was owned by AECL and operated by Ontario Hydro.
Nuclear power in the United Kingdom generates 20% of the country's electricity, as of 2020. The UK has 13 operational nuclear reactors at six locations, as well as nuclear reprocessing plants at Sellafield and the Tails Management Facility (TMF) operated by Urenco in Capenhurst.
Nuclear decommissioning is the process whereby a nuclear facility is dismantled to the point that it no longer requires measures for radiation protection. The presence of radioactive material necessitates processes that are potentially occupationally hazardous, expensive, time-intensive, and present environmental risks that must be addressed to ensure radioactive materials are either transported elsewhere for storage or stored on-site in a safe manner. The challenge in nuclear decommissioning is not just technical, but also economical and social.
Hinkley Point A nuclear power station is a decommissioned Magnox nuclear power station located on a 19.4-hectare (48-acre) site in Somerset on the Bristol Channel coast, 5 miles (8 km) west of the River Parrett estuary. The ongoing decommissioning process is being managed by Nuclear Decommissioning Authority licensee Magnox Ltd.
Taylor Woodrow Construction is a UK-based civil engineering contractor and one of four operating divisions of Vinci Construction UK. The business was launched in 2011, combining civil engineering operations from the former Taylor Woodrow group and from Vinci UK - formerly Norwest Holst.
Berkeley nuclear power station is a decommissioned Magnox nuclear power station situated on the bank of the River Severn in Gloucestershire, England. The ongoing decommissioning process is being managed by Nuclear Decommissioning Authority licensee Magnox Ltd.
Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant was built in the "Science City" of Obninsk, Kaluga Oblast, about 110 km (68 mi) southwest of Moscow, Soviet Union. Connected to the power grid in June 1954, Obninsk was the first grid-connected nuclear power plant in the world, i.e. the first nuclear reactor that produced electricity industrially, albeit at small scale. It was located at the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering. The plant is also known as APS-1 Obninsk. It remained in operation between 1954 and 2002, although its production of electricity for the grid ceased in 1959; thereafter it functioned as a research and isotope production plant only.
Gilbert Ronald Bainbridge (1925–2003) was a British nuclear physicist, engineer and farmer.
Doosan Babcock Ltd is part of Doosan Power Systems S.A., a subsidiary of Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction. It is a power sector OEM, construction, upgrade, and after-market services company that offers specialist services and technologies to the fossil-fired power generation, nuclear power generation, and oil, gas, and petrochemical industries.
Springfields is a nuclear fuel production installation in Salwick, near Preston in Lancashire, England. The site is currently operated by Springfields Fuels Limited, under the management of Westinghouse Electric UK Limited, on a 150-year lease from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Since its conversion from a munitions factory in 1946, it has previously been operated and managed by a number of different organisations including the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and British Nuclear Fuels. Fuel products are produced for the UK's nuclear power stations and for international customers.
Calder Bridge is a village in Cumbria in England. It is located between the hamlets of Gosforth and Beckermet.
Magnox Ltd is a nuclear decommissioning Site Licence Company (SLC), originally controlled by Cavendish Fluor Partnership. It operated under contract for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), a government body set up specifically to deal with the nuclear legacy under the Energy Act 2004. In September 2019, it became a direct subsidiary of the NDA.
