Berkeley Boilers

On Saturday, the final two remaining boilers from the decommissioned Berkeley Nuclear Power Station began the first leg of their journey to Sweden, where they will be recycled.

Boilers leaving Berkeley (Photo:Magnox)

Two, 300+ tonne boilers on massive flatbed trucks, crawling along country roads makes for an impressive spectacle. Unfortunately, I missed it but you can see some footage that someone has kindly posted on the thisisgloucestershire website.

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/VIDEO-Monster-Magnox-boilers-Berkeley-Nuclear/story-18433530-detail/story.html#axzz2NcTibURo

And here is a link to the BBC website which has three nice photos plus a little more detail  about the operation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-21787508

Berkeley Nuclear Power Station (Photo:Magnox)

And if you feel the need for even more information, here is one final link, this time to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority website...

http://www.nda.gov.uk/stakeholders/newsletter/berkeley-sets-the-pace.cfm

Sizewell

The Suffolk coastline is packed with interesting (and often unusual) places and buildings. Sizewell is definitely one of those places, where the two huge nuclear power stations (A and B), dominate the surrounding area. 

Sizewell A - main reactor building - view from the beach

I particularly love the imposing structure of the main reactor building of Sizewell A with it's massive concrete and metal clad walls. Whatever thoughts you may have regarding nuclear power and technology, this is certainly impressive architecture and it is a recurring point of reference in my own work.

from another angle...

 a closer view.

Nice, rusting exterior walkways

so much lovely concrete.

In fact, it is amazing just how close you can get to the site from the beach. You can walk right up to the perimeter wall and in some places you can get a reasonably good vantage point from which to look into the site.

Perimeter wall

There are also some handy signs to alert you, should you be unaware that you are approaching a nuclear site.

Not forgetting the notice at the beach car park with useful advice on what you might like to do in the event of a nuclear emergency.

Sizewell A was finally shut down in 2006 and is currently a few years into it's lengthy decommissioning process about which you can find out more on the Magnox website.


Or you can visit the Nuclear Decommisioning Authority website.


There is also an interesting Daily Telegraph article relating to both Sizewell and nuclear power in general.


Of course you can always visit for yourself and find out what a wonderful place this is!

Sizewell beach