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Insight Newsletter
Edition 7 - September 2011 (3Mb)
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Magnox era draws to a close
19 March 2010
The very last piece of fuel for a Magnox power station has finally been packed, ready for delivery.
The fuel element is destined for Oldbury Power Station and rolled off the production line in May 2008, ending 53 years of continuous Magnox fuel production at the Springfields plant near Preston.
The element itself was packed in mid-January. Actual deliveries depend on station requirements and there are currently a number of Oldbury and Wylfa finished fuel elements awaiting delivery.
"The current plan is that the last Oldbury fuel element will be sent to the station later this year and the last Wylfa element will be sent around June 2012," said Vaughn Sadler, Magnox Quality & Surveillance Engineer/A331 Plant Controller.
Springfields continues to supply a fuel storage, delivery and technical support service.
A fuel element is made up of a uranium metal rod encased in magnesium alloy, giving rise to the name 'Magnox'.
In total, around five and a half million Magnox elements have been produced at Springfields - enough to have powered a city the size of Greater London for almost 30 years.
Pioneering work led the world
The Magnox power stations were the first generation of commercial nuclear power stations in the world and have been a major success story in the history of the UK's nuclear industry.
Thirteen were built in the UK, Italy and Japan and all the fuel was made at Springfields.
They have provided electricity safely, reliably and efficiently since the 1950s. During this time the stations have generated over 1220TWh globally of electricity, equivalent to burning more than 306 million tonnes of coal.
The pioneering work on Magnox fuel also helped the development of the fabrication processes for the Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor (AGR) and other more advanced fuel types.
