Trawsfynydd nuclear site readies for £70m transformation
With the completion of the 20-year radioactive waste removal programme this week, the next phase of decommissioning the former North Wales power station is set to begin.
Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power Station produced power for more than 30 years since it was built in Snowdonia in the 1960s. The plant shut down in the 1990s over safety concerns and a need for expensive upgrades.
The removal and storage of its mid-range radioactive waste completed this week.
Rob Fletcher, chief executive of Nuclear Restoration Services, which has been leading the decommissioning of the power station, described the conclusion of the programme as “the end of an era”.
He said: “Completing this work safely and successfully has allowed Trawsfynydd to move into its next phase of delivery, reducing the height of the reactors by almost half. This will create the most noticeable change to the landscape in decades.”
The height reduction will see the reactor buildings designed by acclaimed Modernist architect Sir Basil Spence go from being 54 metres tall to 29. Costain has been appointed to lead the £70m project, which will take four years to deliver and employ more than a hundred people.
Reducing the scale of the buildings on the power station site will aid in redeveloping the area. Gwynedd County Council has made a push to transform part of the site into an £20m innovation, business, and skills centre with flex offices, laboratories, and collaboration spaces.
Such a plan would build upon Trawsfynydd’s current designations, it sits within the Snowdonia Enterprise Zoen and the North Wales AI Growth Zone
The county council has estimated that the project would add more than 32,300 sq ft of commercial floor space to the area and inject £22m into the economy.
An outline business case has been submitted to Ambition North Wales in a bid to secure funding from the £1bn North Wales Growth Deal.
Does anyone know if the reactor buildings have to be reduced? I’m not a stick-in-the-mud, but they have real presence and historical value. Spence designed then to resemble the nearby castles, which in scale and massing they do.
By RW
Shame that it won’t produce power anymore, but an enterprise zone would be a good reason to re open the railway line there….
By Tom
“North Wales AI Growth Zone” good Lord almighty. I wonder what it’ll be (expensively) rebranded as when that bubble pops ?
By John Smith
Would be better to put in mini nuclear plants as the end use the old network infrastructure in transporting the electricity
By Anonymous
Trawsfynydd had been in consideration for the SMR site, but Wales opted to put Wylfa forward instead.
By Julia Hatmaker
Trawsfynydd holds a patrticular interest to me..as an 8 year old primary school school student I wrote a classroom project covering this Power Station.My father ( emplyed by the CEGB then) was heavily involved in budgets to do with the generation part…steam raising plant, turbines and alternators etc. Fish thrived in the lake water ( used in the steam condensers) since it was raised by a few degrees when discharged. Sir Basil Spence made the design blend into the surrounding countryside.
By CH
I think that this iconic building should be kept intact. Possibly a tourist or education attraction. Develop leisure water facilities. This is a very historical site and future generations need to understand why, what, how it came to be.
By Jane Jones
On the question of the building reduction they probably had to get rid of the cranes in the building. Long term it probably wasn’t deemed safe.
https://world-nuclear-news.org/articles/contract-for-reduction-of-trawsfynydd-reactor-buildings
From SMRs to my knowledge are still pencilled in for there.
Suppose to be some art installation in the concrete at the entrance or somewhere. Whether that has been preserved. Some concrete design celebrating the grid or something. Googles are not pulling it up but I do remember at the time whether that will be saved. It’s bit like those bits of modern art you get to entrances to libraries of that period.
Well AI perhaps they do still intend to have an SMR there.
By Anonymous
What happened to the planned installation of Rolls Royce mini nuclear generators that were going to generate more power than the original power station please?
By Mike
Why reduce the height of the reactor buildings?
£70 millions wasted, Where will the waste go?
Noise and traffic disruption for what?
By Michael Pryce
Goes to prove what a liability Nuclear energy is and the hidden costs. Overspending on build, running up massive costs on decommissioning and outside possibilities of nuclear accident. Hinckley disaster with prevailing SW winds would render the area of N. Somerset to Bristol uninhabitable. As in Japan.
By Chris
The site works make a good prison.
By BalaBongo
Best use is indeed another SMR. As others have said the network capacity is there ready to go.
By Anonymous