Work starts on stack damaged by fire in 1957.
Work to demolish the 110-metre tall chimney of the first Windscale plutonium-producing pile – which suffered a fire in its graphite core in 1957 – has begun at the UK’s Sellafield site.
The chimney is the first of two to be built at Sellafield to service reactors which were used solely for making weapons-grade plutonium for Britain’s nuclear weapons program. The first reactor pile was damaged beyond repair by a fire that officially began on 10 October 1957.
The access area to where the filters had been located in Pile 1’s chimney has now been opened to enable dismantling work to begin. It marks the first time that the chimney has been unsealed in over 17 years.
Work is currently underway to demolish the chimney’s filter-holding structure. There is some 500 tonnes of structural materials including steel work, bricks and masonry in the filter section of the chimney alone. Some 66 tonnes of brickwork has already been removed from the external walls of the section. Over 5000 tonnes of materials in total will need to be removed during the full demolition of the chimney.
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