Green GB Week sees Magnox바카라 사이트檚 double platinum jubilee
In the first 바카라 사이트楪reen GB Week바카라 사이트� to celebrate clean growth, 2 Magnox sites in North Wales have reached landmark anniversaries.
Constructing Maentwrog Dam (1926)
This week marks 90 years since Maentwrog Hydro-electric station began producing carbon바카라 사이트揻ree electricity on 15 October 1928, and 50 years since Trawsfynydd nuclear power station officially opened on 18 October 1968.
Construction of both sites were incredible feats of pioneering 20th century engineering which, for Maentwrog, included the formation of the second largest man-made lake in Wales with the construction of its 4 concrete dams.
Trawsfynydd stopped generating electricity in 1991 but Maentwrog바카라 사이트檚 30 megawatt power station has continued to generate carbon-free electricity, supplying around 4,000 gigawatts of to the National Grid over the last 90 years which is enough to power all the homes in Wales for 6 years.
Rainwater is collected from across the Snowdonia National Park through a network of rivers, leats and streams that feed into Trawsfynydd Lake. The water surges down 2 high pressure pipelines, at more than 4,000 gallons per second, to drive 2 turbines generating electricity. Just one inch of rainfall creates 24 hours of electricity generation.
Maentwrog Dam (present day)
Station Manager, Andy McAteer, commented:
Maentwrog has been operating since 1928 and will carry on harnessing this carbon-free energy source long into the future. We바카라 사이트檝e got a close-knit team that has a unique opportunity to work on the site, knowing that we are only stewards of this beautiful and well-designed site looking after it for future generations.
Maentwrog바카라 사이트檚 younger cousin, Trawsfynydd Site, has had a successful year of decommissioning progress with many of the clean-up and hazard reduction projects coming to a successful end:
- hundreds of thousands of litres of radioactive waste have been safely retrieved, packaged and placed in the site바카라 사이트檚 interim term storage facility
- 3,300m2 of concrete walls and floors in the site바카라 사이트檚 former cooling ponds complex has been decontaminated
- over 1km of pipework has been removed
- several redundant buildings have been demolished
- 12,000kgs of a radioactive waste material known as 바카라 사이트榝uel element debris바카라 사이트� 바카라 사이트� created when the site was generating electricity - has been recovered and placed in safe storage
Trawsfynydd and Maentwrog sites are owned by the government바카라 사이트檚 Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the organisation responsible for cleaning up 17 sites dating back to the earliest days of the nuclear industry.
Nuclear Energy Minister Richard Harrington:
For 90 years Wales has been pioneering the UK바카라 사이트檚 move to a greener, cleaner economy producing low-carbon electricity and during our first ever Green GB Week it바카라 사이트檚 encouraging to see how the UK바카라 사이트檚 Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is also leading the world in decommissioning by cleaning up the UK바카라 사이트檚 legacy nuclear sites in Wales.
The NDA바카라 사이트檚 Director of Nuclear Operations, Alan Cumming, said:
Our sites were built by pioneers of the nuclear industry. These sites were 바카라 사이트榳orld바카라 사이트檚 firsts바카라 사이트� when they were built and they made a remarkable contribution to this country throughout the 20th century.
Today, the UK is at the leading edge of nuclear decommissioning as we safely pioneer approaches to cleaning up the legacy from the earliest days of the nuclear industry, while delivering value for the UK taxpayer.
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