內文如下:
Power station staff look back with pride as reactor set to be shut down
.Tuesday, December 27, 2011 The Bristol Post
THE countdown has started for the last days of generating electricity at Oldbury nuclear power station.
But for staff at the site, it's business as usual until reactor one is closed down and the long process of decommissioning the plant begins in earnest.
Even after the reactor is taken offline, a large amount of work that has been familiar to countless employees over the decades will be necessary.
It means it will be at least a year before the 460 staff currently employed by operators Magnox will drop to about 360 as part of a steady transition.
The station near Thornbury is set to stop generating in February – bosses are currently working towards a date of February 29 – bringing 44 years of providing electricity to an end.
In recent years the nuclear regulators have extended the station's operation, having been satisfied with the safety case, but reactor two has been out of commission since the summer.
The fuel used in Magnox reactors is no longer made and by closing reactor two, it allowed the last of the unused fuel to be transferred to reactor one so it could remain working.
Oldbury's regulators had given approval for reactor one to continue up to the end of 2012 at the latest, despite objections from the anti-nuclear lobby.
But recently Magnox and site owners the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, in conjunction with the Office for Nuclear Regulation, said that amount of extra time was not needed.
They said the decision to close reactor one was taken on economic grounds, with further operation of one of the world's oldest nuclear reactors no longer viable.
Mike Heaton, plant manager and deputy site director, said: "Safety standards in the run-up to February 29 are just as important as ever. Nuclear safety is still our priority and will still be post-generation.
"I've been here just over ten years and am very proud to work at Oldbury. A lot of people have worked on the site and contributed to its success. They can be proud of that and they want to go out on a high note, although taking reactor one out will be tinged with sadness."
Mr Heaton said there would be a period of cooling necessary once the reactor was switched off and further permission from the regulators would be required before shipping of spent fuel to Sellafield could start – a process set to take about two years.
In the past between one and two flasks of fuel a week would be removed from the site and it is likely there will be a maximum of three trips a week during the de-fuelling.
Mr Heaton said talks were ongoing with staff and unions over the changes that decommissioning involves.
A number of people will be approaching retirement and it is unlikely there will be a need for enforced redundancies as the skills of the staff will still be required, either at Oldbury or at other nuclear sites.
Oldbury has employed many people from Bristol and South Gloucestershire and there will be a steady reduction in the workforce over a period of one to two years.
But Mr Heaton said: "The end of generation is not the end of a career. There is still a lot to do.
"About 25 years was the original design life for Oldbury so to achieve 44 years of producing carbon-free energy is quite an achievement."
He said the site and staff had also received a number of safety awards over the years, another achievement of which everyone associated with the plant could be proud.
Recent figures put the cost at £954 million to take Oldbury out of action and clear the site. It will then take about 90 years to achieve the "final end" status.
Meanwhile staff and people living in the area are expected to have a long wait before finding out if a new Oldbury B atomic plant will be built on a neighbouring site to the old station.
美國Zion Nuclear Power Station
(請見http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/2 ... wanted=all&_r=0)
The Zion Station, its twin-unit nuclear reactor here, was no longer profitable. But the company could not afford to tear it down: the cost of dismantling the vast steel and concrete building, with multiple areas of radioactive contamination, would exceed $1 billion, double what it had cost to build the reactors in the 1970s.
除役成本大約是十億美元 為其興建時建廠成本兩倍
若依此兩倍興建成本方式概算 台電的核電廠除役成本的確比較低