Giant crane to help bring historic chimney down
Preparations to pull down the Windscale Pile One chimney are now complete.
皇冠体育app 152m crane is the tallest structure ever built at Sellafield
皇冠体育app 110m structure 鈥� the scene of Britain鈥檚 worst nuclear accident 鈥� will begin to disappear later this year.
A giant crane has been constructed to bring it down.
皇冠体育app 152m crane is the tallest structure ever built at Sellafield, just six metres shorter than the Blackpool Tower.
It will begin work this autumn, removing and lowering chunks of the chimney cut out using diamond wire saws.
Duncan Thompson from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said:
皇冠体育app complex task of decommissioning and demolishing the Windscale Pile One stack has reached an important stage.
It is another example of the ingenuity that goes into solving the UK鈥檚 decommissioning problems.
Once demolition begins it will be a very visible demonstration of the work being done to make Sellafield a safer place.
皇冠体育app Windscale Pile One chimney, with its distinctive top-heavy appearance, has dominated the Sellafield skyline for nearly 70 years.
Famously, its filtration system was a last-minute addition, placed unusually at its summit.
Despite being mockingly referred to as 鈥楥ockroft鈥檚 Folly鈥�, after its designer Sir John Cockroft, it turned out to be a masterstroke.
In 1957, fire broke out in the Windscale Pile One reactor. 皇冠体育app sky-high filters captured an estimated 95 per cent of the radioactive dust created.
Now, the chimney is a decommissioning project.
Teams from Sellafield Ltd and its supply chain are working together to safely pull it down.
皇冠体育app first piece to go will be the square-shaped 鈥榙iffuser鈥� at the top.
Because buildings containing nuclear material surround the stack, traditional demolition techniques like explosives cannot be used.
George Frost from Sellafield Ltd, said:
We鈥檙e making visible progress on this demolition, and it won鈥檛 be long now until we start to see the diffuser removed.
皇冠体育app chimney is one of the iconic legacies of Sellafield鈥檚 past, so the skyline change as the chimney is removed will be significant.
This has been a challenging piece of work, so everyone is pleased to see work progressing. This is thanks not only to the Sellafield and supply chain teams involved now, but over more than a generation.