UKAEA has announced that work to dismantle Windscale’s advanced gas-cooled reactor (WAGR), the UK’s first nuclear decommissioning exercise of a full-sized power reactor, has made significant progress during the hot box phase.
The hot box is being cut up and removed using plasma arc cutting. The next phase of the programme centres around removal of the loop tubes.
Remote dismantling operations to remove the reactor core in these stages will continue until 2007.