The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

 

After 40 years, the final building associated with one of Winfrith's most illustrious experimental reactors has been demolished.

A grassed area is all that's now left of the Zero Energy Breeder Reactor Assembly reactor project (ZEBRA), which lay at the heart of the UK's fast reactor programme.

ZEBRA went operational in 1962 and continued safely for 20 years at the Winfrith site in Dorset. As its name suggests, it was never designed to produce energy but was used purely for research.

Its main function was to simulate the properties of fast reactor cores. It played an important part in the UK fast reactor programme at Dounreay and also saw work on collaborative international research programmes overseas, including in Japan.

When ZEBRA closed in 1982, the fuel was removed and the reactor placed in care and maintenance. In 2001, preparations for decommissioning began.

Key decommissioning tasks included the removal of the reactor core assembly, contaminated plant and pipework, and industrial hazards such as asbestos, and the final demolition of the reactor bioshield.

Decommissioning produced some 360 tonnes of waste, 200 tonnes of it low level waste. Demolition of the reactor took place in 2006, while clearance of the remaining office block, the very last piece in the ZEBRA jigsaw, took place earlier this year.