Country Wales, United Kingdom Status Closed Commission date 1965 Opened March 1965 Construction cost 103 million GBP | Construction began 1959 Decommission date 1991 Phone +44 1766 543210 | |
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Similar Chapelcross nuclear power sta, Oldbury Nuclear Power St, Dungeness Nuclear Power St, Hunterston A nuclear power sta, Winfrith | ||
Gorsaf p er trawsfynydd 1989 trawsfynydd nuclear power station 1989
Trawsfynydd nuclear power station is a disused Magnox power station situated on the north shore of Llyn Trawsfynydd in Gwynedd, Wales. It is significant for being the only Nuclear power station in the UK which was not built on the coast; the plant drew water instead from the nearby lake.
Contents
- Gorsaf p er trawsfynydd 1989 trawsfynydd nuclear power station 1989
- Emptyset trawsfynydd nuclear power station snowdonia wales 17 12 12 subtext 2013
- History
- Transporting nuclear materials
- References
Emptyset trawsfynydd nuclear power station snowdonia wales 17 12 12 subtext 2013
History
The power station was designed by Basil Spence. The construction, which was undertaken by a consortium involving Crompton Parkinson, International Combustion, Fairey Engineering and Richardsons Westgarth, and known as the Atomic Power Constructions (APC), began in July 1959, and both of the reactors were in operation by March 1965, with the station opening fully in October 1968, at a cost of £103 million. It had two Magnox reactors producing 470 megawatts (MW) in total. The reactors were supplied by APC and the turbines by Richardsons Westgarth. The civil engineering work was undertaken by Holland, Hannen & Cubitts and Trollope & Colls. The architectural consultant for the buildings was Sir Basil Spence and the landscape architect was Sylvia Crowe.
Both have been shut down since 1991; the site is in the process of being decommissioned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
Transporting nuclear materials
The Bala to Blaenau Ffestiniog railway line had closed completely in January 1961, but its tracks and infrastructure had been mothballed against the possibility of freight or military traffic resuming. The line had a siding approximately half a mile west of the power station. In 1963-4 a "Goliath" gantry crane was installed over the siding. A single track was restored northwards and a wholly new connection was laid in the centre of Blaenau Ffestiniog between the restored line and the extant Conwy Valley Line. This allowed nuclear flasks to be sent and received by rail to destinations such as Sellafield.
The line and siding opened on 20 April 1964 and served the power station until the last regular train of flasks was dispatched on 8 August 1995. One further final train of nuclear material headed north from the loading point on 22 April 1997, hauled by EWS Loco 37426. The line was subsequently mothballed once more.