A non-nuclear future for Dungeness

An example of a possible future for Dungeness is being demonstrated in Chapelcross in southern Scotland where one of the very first Magnox nuclear power stations is being decommissioned.

Chapelcross used the same Magnox reactors as Dungeness A and was built mainly to produce plutonium for nuclear bombs. It also produced electricity for the National Grid between 1959 and 2004.

The owner of both Dungeness A and Chapelcross is the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), but in the case of Chaplecross the NDA has engaged with a company to convert the site to other uses that will create “several hundred high value jobs”. NDA working with private developer to accelerate Chapelcross Hub – GOV.UK

Why have they not done so for Dungeness A?

It may be because Dungeness B is right next door and is still owned by the French company EDF who recently bought the Dungeness Estate, about 500 acres of the surrounding land consisting largely of National Nature Reserve and Sites of Special Scientific Interest ( SSSI). It is not clear why they did so.

There is another example of a redundant nuclear power station in Anglesey called Wylfa, also looking for alternative uses. There was a proposal to build a new power station here, but the main investor, Hitachi, pulled out and the project collapsed. In November, the government announced that Wylfa could be a site for three Small Modular Reactors (SMR). This is as yet unproven technology, and the earliest that any work is likely to start on them will be 2030; it is not at all certain that they will prove economically viable.

Nuclear power currently costs at least 3 to 4 times as much as other sources of electricity. The supporters of nuclear say that it is needed for “base load” when the wind does not blow, or the sun does not shine. The exponential growth in long term storage and international links to countries that have electricity at times when we need it, means we may not need this “base load” much, if at all. A few gas-fired “peaker plants” could provide the back-stop quite easily and at a much lower cost. The carbon emissions associated with burning this gas will be insignificant- at least until all ground transport is electrified.

We should be asking the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to start working with EDF on a positive, non-nuclear, future for Dungeness that makes use of its key location on the National Grid – if they can do it in Chapelcross, why not in Dungeness?

Some notes:

Dungeness A was one of the original fleet of nuclear power stations that started generating in the 1960s. Currently, the site is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and is managed by its Nuclear Restoration Services. Although radioactive material will not be made fully safe until about 2089, the site can be used now for other purposes.

Dungeness B had two Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors ( AGR) of about 520 MWe each. They were operational from 1983 to 2021. EDF still owns the site.

Dungeness C There is land set aside for a third reactor next to B, and this was considered in 2009, along with other sites in the UK. The site was rejected because of coastal erosion and flooding risk.

HVDC link – Dungeness (since 1961) was the site of the Converter station for the 45-mile-long direct current link to France. It has a capacity of 2,000 MW ( 2 GW), and the converter has since been moved to Sellindge. The UK has eight interconnectors with Europe, with a capacity of 9.8 GW. There are plans to increase this to 18 GW by 2030.

Image Credits: Oast House archive Creative Commons , Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:John%20-%20http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Chapelcross1.jpg,%20CC%20BY-SA%203.0,%20https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2325306 .