Gloucestershire nuclear power station will take 100 years to close

A nuclear power station that provided enough electricity to serve a small city is expected to take more than 100 years to decommission.

Berkeley nuclear power station, situated on the bank of the River Severn in Gloucestershire, was closed in 1989.

It came into service in 1962 and successfully operated for 27 years.

It generated enough electricity on a typical day to serve an urban area the size of Bristol.

Berkeley site director Chris Burden said work to continue the removal of waste and rubble was under way.

"The blower houses used to house what we call the gas circulators and the circulators were used to put CO2 around the boilers to heat the boilers up," he said.

"They were obviously decommissioned many many years ago."

"Were taking out all the waste from the blower houses that will be sent off site.

"Once it's been sent off site it will be remediated, decontaminated and recycled. The metal will be melted back down again and go onto the market."

Magnox Ltd project manager Adam Jones said Berkeley "wasn't designed for easy decommissioning".

"The intention is to leave this land ready for reuse," he said.

"So whether it will be used for industrial use, or whether it will be used for private use houses in the future, that's where we aim to get to.

"The company has already achieved a huge amount with a large amount of waste retrieval and conventional demolition that you can see around the site already.

"There's still a lot more to do."

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