Calder Hall Cooling Towers Demolition
Background
Calder Hall, the world's first commercial nuclear power station, was officially opened in October 1956 by Her Majesty The Queen. After 47 years of generating electricity, enough to meet the average electricity demand of England and Wales for 3 months, Calder Hall finally ceased operation in March 2003.
Calder Hall comprised of four gas cooled reactors, four cooling towers, two turbine halls, together with ancillary buildings.
Challenge
Once Calder Hall had shut down the decision was taken to remove as many of the redundant structures as possible, including the four 88m high concrete cooling towers that had serviced the four reactor facilities.
Following extensive research we decided that explosive demolition was the safest and most cost effective method to use to bring the structures down
This method, involving the placement of explosives in approximately 60% of the circumference of the shell and legs, was tried and tested and had been used on nearly 200 similar structures in the UK. However, the location of the towers on the Sellafield site introduced additional and complex challenges.
The UK’s only nuclear fuel handling plant is located within 45 metres of the towers and it was crucial that the operational areas of the Sellafield site could continue their activities with little disruption.
On the 29 September 2007, after nearly 3 years of prepararion work, the towers were safely demolished, marking a major step in the decommissioning of the Sellafield site and changing the West Cumbrian skyline forever.
50 years erased in seconds
To date, we have safely demolished 21 redundant structures at Sellafield
What we do
Calder Hall Nuclear Power Station Environmental Management
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