The last nuclear reactor was switched off at Wylfa in December 2015 and the work of
defuelling began.
Following the completion of the
defuelling the site will move into its care and maintenance preparations phase which focuses on retrieving, treating and processing any wastes.
We will continue to demonstrate this safety-first approach throughout the operating lives of our nuclear fleet, up to and beyond the point when we decide to end the generation phase and begin
defuelling and decommissioning.
Work at Vulcan currently centres on
defuelling its reactor and hauling the highly radioactive payload to the reprocessing plant at Sellafield in Cumbria.
It took three more hours for the
defuelling tank from a private company to arrive at the airport, he said.
Chapelcross' own nuclear rods were removed last year after a major
defuelling project and the site is currently being decommissioned.
It adds: "Further progress will be made in
defuelling at Chapelcross, Sizewell A and Dungeness A, with generation continuing at Oldbury and Wylfa."
In one, a basket of irradiated fuel elements was dropped during routine
defuelling of Reactor 3, while a worker was also exposed to an irradiated fuel dement during refuelling of Reactor 2.
These included that tanks should be connected to one another "to ensure all necessary sub-system functions like fuel transfer/cross feed and gas drainage." Also, refuelling and
defuelling of the tank group systems shall be done simultaneously via the refuelling line, using one common coupling.
Two months earlier a "grab-release" mechanism failed during another
defuelling operation.
Meanwhile, a CASA spokesperson said that light aircraft operators must follow safety procedures when removing fuel because `there is a high explosive risk during
defuelling of aircraft` and he particularly warned against people using their mouths to start fuel syphoning due to the carcinogenic properties of the fuel.