News
Publish date: August 13, 2007
News
Controlled blasts on the four towers are a prelude to their demolition later this year. Experts detonated a charge on a small part of each of the 88m high towers’ shells.
The demolition of the towers is part of the British Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) plan to dismantle ageing facilities throughout the UK.
Jack Williamson, the cooling towers project superintendent, told the BBC that: "The test was a real-time dry run of all the safety, engineering and communications systems that will be used on demolition day.
"It was an essential and valuable part of our preparatory work and I’m pleased to report that it was a success."
Project manager Andy North added: "Safety is our primary consideration for this project.
"A variety of demolition methods were evaluated for removing the towers and controlled demolition with explosives was recommended as the safest."
After the final demolition, debris from the towers will be recovered, processed and used to fill in the voids of the cooling ponds beneath the towers, making the site available for reuse in the future.
The towers were originally part of the Calder hall facility, which was the world’s first nuclear reactor and opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1956. Calder Hall ceased operating in 2003 after almost 50 years in service.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.