John Whittingdale visited the site of Bradwell Power Station to see progress being made in decommissioning the station. John received a briefing from Mark Morant, President of Energy Solutions International Group, and Dick Sexton, Site Manager. Bradwell Power Station ceased generating in 2002 and its decommissioning is being managed by Energy Solutions.
The site is now completely defuelled and the demolition of the turbine hall will commence shortly. At present, there are 421 people working on site and the major decommissioning process is scheduled to be achieved by 2015, after which it will be left in a Care and Maintenance state. John was given a tour of the site and was able to see the ponds where fuel used to be stored, which are now drained and sealed with the vast majority of radioactivity removed.
John met a number of employees of Radwise, a subcontractor employed to monitor radioactivity while decommissioning is taking place, all of whom were recruited locally.
John also met Steve Jack, Project Manager, and Bob Collins of Erith, the company carrying out the demolition work in the Turbine Hall (Picture 2). John said: “Excellent progress is being made in decommissioning Bradwell and this is setting the standard for decommissioning of the other Magnox stations in due course. Bradwell remains by far the biggest source of employment in the Dengie Peninsula and has been, and will continue to be, a major contributor to the local economy”
