All nuclear fuel at a former Anglesey power plant should soon be off site. The last of the 90,000 nuclear fuel elements from the closed power station at Wylfa are being prepared for transporting to Cumbria by rail. When these trains cease to run it will signal the end of freight trains on the North Wales line – at least for the time being. The last nuclear reactor was switched off at Wylfa in December 2015 and the work of defuelling began . At the start of the process the two reactors contained 90,000 fuel elements. Last autrumn Magnox officials revealed staff at Wylfa were retrieving 1,000 fuel elements a week and shipping seven flasks a week. 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. The flasks start their journey by road being taken from the Wylfa site to a siding off the main line at Valley. From there they are taken to Crewe and then along the West Coast main line to Carnforth and onto the Cumbrian Coast line for reprocessing. Trains taking these flasks to the Cumbrian plant have been running in North Wales since the mid-1960’s and initially ran to both Wylfa and Trawsfynydd with the trains being combined at Llandudno Junction.
Daily Post 22nd Aug 2019 read more »