Saturday, 19 May 2007

Saturday notes

Good morning all from a slightly more benign Stornoway. The wind dropped away from its galeforce apex at 10 o'clock last night, and the weather is passable. Yes, there's this shower rattling through, which augments the wind again.

From the other side of Scotland comes news that the four cooling towers of the Chapelcross nuclear powerstation, near Annan, are to be blown up at 9am tomorrow morning. Travellers on the M6 motorway approaching Carlisle, the A69 coming across from Newcastle and the M74 from Glasgow are familiar with this sight

The powerstation was built in 1955, but is being decommissioned. The demolition will be shown on-line. J-lander Jeanie [kirkbyj05] who is currently on holiday in Scotland will notice a difference when she returns home in a week's time.
Decommissioning a nuclear powerstation takes a long time. I copy from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority website:

2007 - demolition of cooling towers
2009 - defuelling finished (this means all the nuclear fuel has been removed for processing at the Sellafield nuclear processing plant)
2021 - Start of Care and Maintenance phase – all fuel removed and all plant, facilities and buildings other than reactor buildings fully decommissioned
2116 - End of long term care and maintenance phase - commencement of final decommissioning of reactor buildings
2128 - Final site clearance and available for potential re-use

Which is one of the reasons why I am opposed to new nuclear powerstations.
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous19 May 2007 at 12:11

    So they're going down, eh?  Many who look to them as landmarks will miss the site.  Speaking of gale winds, picture quiet little New Jersey with gale force winds of 72 mph.  Across the bridge on the Manhattan island and its 5 boroughs, trees were uprooted and cars blown onto rooftops.  Mom Nature is really giving us a warning.  Btw, thanks for stopping by, what do you think of this new format w/ the pix?  Change makes me nervous lol!  xoxo CATHY
    http://journals.aol.com/luddie343/DARETOTHINK/

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  2. Anonymous19 May 2007 at 16:23

    We've got some of those in our area, too.  We had a lttle rain during the night..I see small puddles in my drive way.   Right at this moment we are experiencing a "sun break."  I think I'm still going to have to go out and water my hanging baskets today.  Happy Saturday,  Linda in Washington state  

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  3. Anonymous19 May 2007 at 19:47

    I had no idea it takes so long to make the land available for use again.
    I'm glad your weather has settled down.  It's calm and sunny here. Boring as always. But, I'd rather have boring then tornados or storms, I guess.
    Have a good night.
    Pam

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  4. Anonymous19 May 2007 at 21:42

    Geez...It takes THAT long? To make it safe?? That's sooo scary! Do you know more Guido?Do these people actually know the long term effects????

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