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Chapelcross, Nuclear Power Station

Power Station (20th Century)

Site Name Chapelcross, Nuclear Power Station

Classification Power Station (20th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Annan Airfield

Canmore ID 94787

Site Number NY26NW 29

NGR NY 2167 6970

NGR Description Centred NY 2167 6970

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/94787

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Dumfries And Galloway
  • Parish Annan
  • Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
  • Former District Annandale And Eskdale
  • Former County Dumfries-shire

Archaeology Notes

NY26NW 29 centred 2167 6970

See also Annan airfield (centred NY 2178 7027), NY27SW 39.

Built 1955-60 by Merz and McLellan as consultant engineers and L J Cowes and partners as associate architects.

J Gifford 1996.

Chapelcross Nuclear Power Station, situated approximately 2km NE of Annan town (NY16NE 133) and at the SW end of Annan Airfield (NY27SW 39), has been recorded from aerial photographs (RCAHMSAP 1994). It is currently operated by British Nuclear Fuels.

Information from RCAHMS (MKO, JH) 14 July 1998.

Activities

Note (15 January 2021)

Chapelcross was Scotland’s first commercial nuclear power station, producing Plutonium for the British Nuclear Weapons Programme and electricity for the National Grid. Its story is inextricably linked with that of the Cold War (1945-1990), a period of tension between the Soviet Union and Eastern-bloc countries on one hand and the USA and its allies in the West after the Second World War (1939-45).

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) held a meeting with local Government representatives in Annan on 11th August 1955 to explain why UKAEA considered Creca, near Annan to be an ideal location for the building of four reactors at the site. These included established transport links, the proximity to the River Annan for a water supply and the proximity of the Solway Firth for the building of an effluent pipe. It was also near Calder Hall nuclear power station in Cumbria (first commercial nuclear power station in the World) and the UKAEA HQ at Risley.

The building of Chapelcross Nuclear Power Station was begun on October 1955 on the 92- acre site of former Second World War aerodrome RAF Annan, near Creca. The consulting engineers who oversaw the project were Mertz and McLellan of Newcastle. Local engineering firms such as Cochran’s boiler makers, John Boyd engineering and J.M. Wells engineering was also contracted to carry out work. Mitchell Construction Co. of Glasgow built the power station. A camp was built at Creca for the construction workers using the former RAF Annan buildings. Housing and schools were also provided for those working at the site and their families.

Reactor 1 was completed in 1958 and Reactor 4 came online in 1960. On the 27th February 1959, Chapelcross was the first operational nuclear power station in Scotland and was at full capacity by December 1960. Chapelcross had one long turbine hall for all the generators (there were eight generator sets altogether) and two blower houses - each serving two of the four Magnox reactors.

Each 37 feet diameter, welded steel plate, pressure vessel within each 7 feet thick concrete reactor shield was fabricated on site. Within each pressure vessel a steel grid, or diagrid, was built to support the 36 feet by 27 feet graphite moderator. The channels within the graphite moderator contained fuel elements, control rods and monitoring instruments. The fuel elements were Uranium bars sealed in magnesium alloy (or Magnox) cans. Spent uranium fuel rods were transferred to the Cooling Ponds on site prior being transported to Windscale, Cumbria for processing.

The Turbine Hall at Chapelcross contained eight units of two-stage turbines with alternator, capable of producing a maximum of 23,000 kilowatts of power each. Hot water was taken from the Turbine Hall to the Cooling Towers (300feet/91m in height) and thence to the Cooling Ponds. 200,000 gallons of water per day were taken from the River Annan for cooling purposes by 1958.

Chapelcross’s main aim was to produce Plutonium for military purposes. Electricity generation for the National Grid was secondary – a way to use the heat from the process. Nuclear reactors produce a huge amount of heat - one pound of Uranium 235 or Plutonium can produce heat equivalent to burning 1000 tons of coal. This heat was used to heat boilers which converted water to steam. The steam in turn drove the turbines which in turn drove the alternators to produce electricity.

In 1971 the Atomic Energy Authority Act disbanded UKAEA into two companies, one of which, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) took over nuclear fuel and weapon material production, including Calder Hall and Chapelcross, the two dual purpose military Plutonium reactors. In 1973 the Atomic Energy Authority (Weapons Group) Act transferred the responsibility for the British nuclear deterrent to the Ministry of Defence. In the mid-1970s, BNFL Chapelcross was chosen to produce Tritium - a gaseous isotope of hydrogen and an ingredient for the Hydrogen Bomb - for the MOD. Reactors 3 and 4 made the Tritium which was then processed in the process plant which was in full production by 1981. The production levels of Tritium and Plutonium at Chapelcross were kept secret.

Tritium production and electricity generation (and Plutonium production) were ceased in 2004 with the passing of the Energy Act (2004). Chapelcross was handed over to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) who would decommission the site including the removal of spend and used fuel rods from the reactors and the ponds and sent for reprocessing. The cooling towers were demolished in 2007. Decommissioning involves the treating, processing and removal of hazardous materials as well as demolition, site clearing and storage and management of radioactive material on site. The removal of all structures on site will not be complete until 2095.

S Harper (2018)

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