125-417: Wylfa nuclear power station ( Welsh : Atomfa'r Wylfa ) is a Magnox nuclear power station undergoing decommissioning . Wylfa is situated west of Cemaes Bay on the island of Anglesey , off the northwestern coast of Wales. Construction of the two 490 MW nuclear reactors, known as Reactor 1 and Reactor 2, began in 1963. They became operational in 1971. Wylfa was located on the coast because seawater
250-609: A GDF were estimated £12.2 billion in 2008. The NDA's share of this is £10.1 billion, which results in a discounted amount of about £3.4 billion. Following the decision taken by the British government in January 1947 to develop nuclear weapons, Sellafield was chosen as the location of the plutonium production plant, consisting of the Windscale Piles and accompanying reprocessing plant to separate plutonium from
375-441: A Welsh Language Scheme, which indicates its commitment to the equality of treatment principle. This is sent out in draft form for public consultation for a three-month period, whereupon comments on it may be incorporated into a final version. It requires the final approval of the now defunct Welsh Language Board ( Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg ). Thereafter, the public body is charged with implementing and fulfilling its obligations under
500-594: A Welsh-language edge inscription was used on pound coins dated 1985, 1990 and 1995, which circulated in all parts of the UK prior to their 2017 withdrawal. The wording is Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad (Welsh for 'True am I to my country'), and derives from the national anthem of Wales, " Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau ". UK banknotes are in English only. Some shops employ bilingual signage. Welsh sometimes appears on product packaging or instructions. The UK government has ratified
625-663: A census glossary of terms to support the release of results from the census, including their definition of "main language" as referring to "first or preferred language" (though that wording was not in the census questionnaire itself). The wards in England with the most people giving Welsh as their main language were the Liverpool wards of Central and Greenbank ; and Oswestry South in Shropshire . The wards of Oswestry South (1.15%), Oswestry East (0.86%) and St Oswald (0.71%) had
750-405: A fair amount. 56 per cent of Welsh speakers speak the language daily, and 19 per cent speak the language weekly. The Welsh Government plans to increase the number of Welsh-language speakers to one million by 2050. Since 1980, the number of children attending Welsh-medium schools has increased, while the number going to Welsh bilingual and dual-medium schools has decreased. Welsh is considered
875-410: A museum involving renovating Calder Hall and preserving the towers were formulated, but the costs were too high. The cooling towers were demolished by controlled implosions on 29 September 2007. A period of 12 weeks was required to remove asbestos in the towers' rubble. The WAGR was a prototype for the UK's second generation of reactors, the advanced gas-cooled reactor or AGR, which followed on from
1000-399: A new language altogether. The argued dates for the period of "Primitive Welsh" are widely debated, with some historians' suggestions differing by hundreds of years. The next main period is Old Welsh ( Hen Gymraeg , 9th to 11th centuries); poetry from both Wales and Scotland has been preserved in this form of the language. As Germanic and Gaelic colonisation of Britain proceeded,
1125-517: A nuclear reactor. Between 1977 and 1978 an inquiry, chaired by Mr Justice Parker , was held into an application by BNFL for outline planning permission to build a new plant to reprocess irradiated oxide nuclear fuel from both UK and foreign reactors. The inquiry was used to answer three questions: "1. Should oxide fuel from United Kingdom reactors be reprocessed in this country at all; whether at Windscale or elsewhere? 2. If yes, should such reprocessing be carried on at Windscale? 3. If yes, should
1250-452: A pre-stressed concrete pressure vessel instead of steel for easier construction and enhanced safety. Wylfa's two 490 MW Magnox nuclear reactors – Reactor 1 and Reactor 2 – became operational in 1971. They typically supplied 23 GW h of electricity daily when they were both in service. Although the original design output was 1,190 MW, unexpected accelerated ("breakaway") corrosion of mild steel components of
1375-479: A single discourse (known in linguistics as code-switching ). Welsh speakers are largely concentrated in the north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd , Conwy County Borough , Denbighshire , Anglesey , Carmarthenshire , north Pembrokeshire , Ceredigion , parts of Glamorgan , and north-west and extreme south-west Powys . However, first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales. Welsh-speaking communities persisted well into
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#17327730419781500-495: A site to the south of the existing Wylfa station. On 18 October 2010, the British government announced that Wylfa was one of the eight sites it considered suitable for future nuclear power stations. In January 2012, 300 anti-nuclear protesters took to the streets of Llangefni, against plans to build a new nuclear power station at Wylfa. The march was organised by organisations including Pobl Atal Wylfa B, Greenpeace and Cymdeithas yr Iaith, which are supporting farmer Richard Jones who
1625-610: A subsidiary of the NDA. Sellafield accounts for most of the NDA's decommissioning budget and the increases in future cost estimates. Its share (discounted, including Calder Hall and Windscale; excluding Capenhurst) increased from 21.9 billion (65%) in 2007 to 97.0 billion (82%) in 2019. In 2013, the UK Government Public Accounts Committee issued a critical report stating that NMP had failed to reduce costs and delays. Between 2005 and 2013,
1750-501: A timely fashion since the cladding corrodes if stored underwater, and routes for dry storage have not yet been proven, so it has been necessary to keep the plant running to process all the Magnox fuel inventory. Magnox fuel reprocessing ceased on 17 July 2022, when the reprocessing plant completed its last batch of fuel after 58 years of operation. A total of 55,000 tonnes of fuel had been processed during those years. This
1875-646: A tunnel under the Menai Strait to carry the power cables to protect the conservation worth of the Strait and the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty . In December 2017, Horizon believed the consensus of government and industry was that the Contract for Difference financing model used for Hinkley Point C nuclear power station , involving fully private sector financing, would not be used for subsequent nuclear plants, and
2000-457: Is Europe's largest nuclear site and has the most diverse range of nuclear facilities in the world on a single site. The site's workforce size varies, and before the COVID-19 pandemic was approximately 10,000 people. The UK's National Nuclear Laboratory has its Central Laboratory and headquarters on the site. Originally built as a Royal Ordnance Factory in 1942, the site briefly passed into
2125-477: Is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria , England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste processing and storage and nuclear decommissioning . Former activities included nuclear power generation from 1956 to 2003, and nuclear fuel reprocessing from 1952 to 2022. The licensed site covers an area of 265 hectares (650 acres), and comprises more than 200 nuclear facilities and more than 1,000 buildings. It
2250-637: Is available throughout Europe on satellite and online throughout the UK. Since the digital switchover was completed in South Wales on 31 March 2010, S4C Digidol became the main broadcasting channel and fully in Welsh. The main evening television news provided by the BBC in Welsh is available for download. There is also a Welsh-language radio station, BBC Radio Cymru , which was launched in 1977. Sellafield Sellafield , formerly known as Windscale ,
2375-420: Is evidenced by the dropping of final syllables from Brittonic: * bardos 'poet' became bardd , and * abona 'river' became afon . Though both Davies and Jackson cite minor changes in syllable structure and sounds as evidence for the creation of Old Welsh, Davies suggests it may be more appropriate to refer to this derivative language as Lingua Britannica rather than characterising it as
2500-480: Is expected to take until 2032, followed by a care and maintenance phase from 2033 to 2104. Demolition of reactor buildings and final site clearance is planned for 2105 to 2114. As of March 2021, the NDA reported that they had: In August 2023, work started to retrieve waste from the PFCS, which had been created in the 1950s to store cladding from used Windscale Piles nuclear fuel, described as "a momentous milestone in
2625-463: Is in dispute with Horizon. In 2013, Horizon planned initial site work to start at Wylfa in 2015, with building work starting in 2018 and generation starting in the mid-2020s. This timescale was delayed, and Hitachi planned to make the final investment decision in 2019. On 4 April 2017, Horizon submitted a Site Licence Application to the Office for Nuclear Regulation . The scheme was extended to include
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#17327730419782750-618: Is managed by Magnox Ltd (formerly British Nuclear Group , formerly Nuclear Electric , formerly National Power , formerly the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB)) which is a subsidiary of the site owner, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The NDA's purpose is to oversee the decommissioning and clean-up of the UK's civil nuclear legacy. During its operational life substantial works were needed to strengthen
2875-515: Is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) which is a non-departmental public body of the UK government. Following a period 2008–2016 of management by a private consortium, the site was returned to direct government control by making the Site Management Company, Sellafield Ltd , a subsidiary of the NDA. Decommissioning of legacy facilities, some of which date back to the UK's first efforts to produce an atomic bomb,
3000-501: Is planned for completion by 2120 at a cost of £121 billion. Sellafield was the site in 1957 of one of the world's worst nuclear incidents . This was the Windscale fire which occurred when uranium metal fuel ignited inside Windscale Pile no.1 . Radioactive contamination was released into the environment, which it is now estimated caused around 240 cancers in the long term, with 100 to 240 of these being fatal. The incident
3125-638: Is spoken by smaller numbers of people in Canada and the United States descended from Welsh immigrants, within their households (especially in Nova Scotia ). Historically, it has also been known in English as "British", "Cambrian", "Cambric" and "Cymric". The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 gave the Welsh language official status in Wales. Welsh and English are de jure official languages of
3250-500: The 2016 Australian census , 1,688 people noted that they spoke Welsh. In the 2011 Canadian census , 3,885 people reported Welsh as their first language . According to the 2021 Canadian census , 1,130 people noted that Welsh was their mother tongue. The 2018 New Zealand census noted that 1,083 people in New Zealand spoke Welsh. The American Community Survey 2009–2013 noted that 2,235 people aged five years and over in
3375-466: The 2021 census , 7,349 people in England recorded Welsh to be their "main language". In the 2011 census, 1,189 people aged three and over in Scotland noted that Welsh was a language (other than English) that they used at home. It is believed that there are as many as 5,000 speakers of Patagonian Welsh . In response to the question 'Does the person speak a language other than English at home?' in
3500-683: The Battle of Dyrham , a military battle between the West Saxons and the Britons in 577 AD, which split the South Western British from direct overland contact with the Welsh. Four periods are identified in the history of Welsh, with rather indistinct boundaries: Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh. The period immediately following the language's emergence is sometimes referred to as Primitive Welsh, followed by
3625-516: The Energy Act 2004 as part of government policy to introduce competition into the nuclear industry to better control decommissioning costs. In 2008, the NDA awarded Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) the position of Parent Body Organisation of Sellafield Ltd under their standard management model for NDA sites; this gave them complete responsibility for operating and managing the NDA-owned assets,
3750-538: The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of Welsh. The language has greatly increased its prominence since the creation of the television channel S4C in November 1982, which until digital switchover in 2010 broadcast 70 per cent of Channel 4's programming along with a majority of Welsh language shows during peak viewing hours. The all-Welsh-language digital station S4C Digidol
3875-496: The Magnox reprocessing plant came on stream to reprocess spent nuclear fuel from the national Magnox reactor fleet. The plant used the "plutonium uranium extraction" ( Purex ) method for reprocessing spent fuel, with tributyl phosphate in odourless kerosene and nitric acid as extraction agents. The Purex process produces uranium, plutonium and fission products as separated chemical output streams. Magnox fuel has to be reprocessed in
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4000-429: The Magnox stations. The station had a rated thermal output of approximately 100 MW and 30 MWe. The WAGR spherical containment, known colloquially as the "golfball", is one of the iconic buildings on the site. Construction was carried out by Mitchell Construction and completed in 1962. This reactor was shut down in 1981, and is now part of a pilot project to demonstrate techniques for safely decommissioning
4125-519: The Old Welsh period – which is generally considered to stretch from the beginning of the 9th century to sometime during the 12th century. The Middle Welsh period is considered to have lasted from then until the 14th century, when the Modern Welsh period began, which in turn is divided into Early and Late Modern Welsh. The word Welsh is a descendant, via Old English wealh, wielisc , of
4250-686: The Proto-Germanic word * Walhaz , which was derived from the name of the Celtic people known to the Romans as Volcae and which came to refer to speakers of Celtic languages, and then indiscriminately to the people of the Western Roman Empire . In Old English the term went through semantic narrowing , coming to refer to either Britons in particular or, in some contexts, slaves. The plural form Wēalas evolved into
4375-640: The United States spoke Welsh at home. The highest number of those (255) lived in Florida . Sources: Calls for the Welsh language to be granted official status grew with the establishment of the nationalist political party Plaid Cymru in 1925, the establishment of the Welsh Language Society in 1962 and the rise of Welsh nationalism in the later 20th century. Of the six living Celtic languages (including two revived), Welsh has
4500-542: The "hugely important role", adding, "I look forward to working with the Welsh Government and organisations in Wales in developing the new system of standards. I will look to build on the good work that has been done by the Welsh Language Board and others to strengthen the Welsh language and ensure that it continues to thrive." First Minister Carwyn Jones said that Huws would act as a champion for
4625-499: The 11,000m3 of historic waste from the silos and storing safely have taken over 20 years. On 10 June 2022, Sellafield Ltd announced the commencement of waste retrievals which will take approximately 20 years. Once this radiological hazard has been removed, the MSSS structure can be demolished. Calder Hall was first connected to the grid on 27 August 1956 and officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 17 October 1956. It
4750-473: The 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of nearly all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion , although the tales themselves are certainly much older. It is also the language of the existing Welsh law manuscripts. Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The Bible translations into Welsh helped maintain
4875-596: The 1880s identified a small part of Shropshire as still then speaking Welsh, with the "Celtic Border" passing from Llanymynech through Oswestry to Chirk . The number of Welsh-speaking people in the rest of Britain has not yet been counted for statistical purposes. In 1993, the Welsh-language television channel S4C published the results of a survey into the numbers of people who spoke or understood Welsh, which estimated that there were around 133,000 Welsh-speaking people living in England, about 50,000 of them in
5000-536: The 1993 Act nor secondary legislation made under it covers the private sector, although some organisations, notably banks and some railway companies, provide some of their information in Welsh. On 7 December 2010, the Welsh Assembly unanimously approved a set of measures to develop the use of the Welsh language within Wales. On 9 February 2011 this measure, the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 ,
5125-486: The Assembly which confirms the official status of the Welsh language; which creates a strong advocate for Welsh speakers and will improve the quality and quantity of services available through the medium of Welsh. I believe that everyone who wants to access services in the Welsh language should be able to do so, and that is what this government has worked towards. This legislation is an important and historic step forward for
Wylfa nuclear power station - Misplaced Pages Continue
5250-517: The Brittonic speakers in Wales were split off from those in northern England, speaking Cumbric, and those in the southwest, speaking what would become Cornish , so the languages diverged. Both the works of Aneirin ( Canu Aneirin , c. 600 ) and the Book of Taliesin ( Canu Taliesin ) were written during this era. Middle Welsh ( Cymraeg Canol ) is the label attached to the Welsh of
5375-682: The Celtic language spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons . Classified as Insular Celtic , the British language probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was probably spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth . During the Early Middle Ages the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, thus evolving into Welsh and
5500-498: The Greater London area. The Welsh Language Board , on the basis of an analysis of the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study, estimated there were 110,000 Welsh-speaking people in England, and another thousand in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In the 2011 census , 8,248 people in England gave Welsh in answer to the question "What is your main language?" The Office for National Statistics subsequently published
5625-422: The MSSS which will be processed in other specially designed site facilities, and then placed in interim storage at Sellafield. Longer term it is hoped such waste would be consigned to a deep geological repository for permanent storage. The radioactive inventory and lack of modern standards in the silo has made it the most complicated and highest-priority mission in the NDA estate nationally. Preparations for removing
5750-516: The Ministry of Supply for the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons . Construction of the nuclear facilities commenced in September 1947 and the site was renamed Windscale Works. The building of the nuclear plant was a huge construction project, requiring a peak effort of 5,000 workers. The two air-cooled and open-circuit, graphite -moderated Windscale reactors (the " Windscale Piles ") and
5875-401: The NDA announced an extension to 2012, beyond Wylfa's 40th anniversary as a generating power station in January 2011, due to schedule slippage at Sellafield which would allow Wylfa additional time before final defuelling. At this time, a strategy was also devised to maximise the generation from the remaining fuel stock given that new fuel could no longer be manufactured. This required a change in
6000-526: The UK Government announced that all production of plutonium for weapons purposes had ceased. The station was closed on 31 March 2003, the first reactor having been in use for nearly 47 years. decommissioning started in 2005. The plant should be in save storage, called "care and maintenance" (C&M), by 2027 or later. Calder Hall had four cooling towers , each 88 metres (289 ft) in height, which were highly-visible landmarks. Plans for
6125-466: The UK plans to construct up to eight new reactors this decade. These sites would be part of the next set of plants with the first being Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C. The Wylfa and Oldbury sites are likely to begin construction next parliament. In March 2024, during the Spring Budget , Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that the site would be purchased from Hitachi for £160m. In May 2024, Wylfa
6250-517: The UKAEA. At this time the site was being expanded across the River Calder where four Magnox reactors were being built to create the world's first commercial-scale nuclear power station. This became operational in 1956 and was the world's first nuclear power station to export electricity on a commercial scale to a public grid. The whole site became known as "Windscale and Calder Works". Following
6375-496: The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, all new signs have Welsh displayed first. There have been incidents of one of the languages being vandalised, which may be considered a hate crime . Since 2000, the teaching of Welsh has been compulsory in all schools in Wales up to age 16; this has had an effect in stabilising and reversing the decline in the language. Text on UK coins tends to be in English and Latin. However,
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#17327730419786500-704: The Welsh Language Scheme. The list of other public bodies which have to prepare Schemes could be added to by initially the Secretary of State for Wales, from 1993 to 1997, by way of statutory instrument . Subsequent to the forming of the National Assembly for Wales in 1997, the Government Minister responsible for the Welsh language can and has passed statutory instruments naming public bodies who have to prepare Schemes. Neither
6625-895: The Welsh Parliament, the Senedd , with Welsh being the only de jure official language in any part of the United Kingdom, with English being merely de facto official. According to the 2021 census , the Welsh-speaking population of Wales aged three or older was 538,300 (17.8%) and nearly three quarters of the population in Wales said they had no Welsh language skills. Other estimates suggest that 862,700 people (28.0%) aged three or older in Wales could speak Welsh in March 2024. Almost half of all Welsh speakers consider themselves fluent, while 20 per cent are able to speak
6750-526: The Welsh language, though some had concerns over her appointment: Plaid Cymru spokeswoman Bethan Jenkins said, "I have concerns about the transition from Meri Huws's role from the Welsh Language Board to the language commissioner, and I will be asking the Welsh government how this will be successfully managed. We must be sure that there is no conflict of interest, and that the Welsh Language Commissioner can demonstrate how she will offer
6875-487: The Welsh of the 16th century, but they are similar enough for a fluent Welsh speaker to have little trouble understanding it. During the Modern Welsh period, there has been a decline in the popularity of the Welsh language: the number of Welsh speakers declined to the point at which there was concern that the language would become extinct. During industrialisation in the late 19th century, immigrants from England led to
7000-630: The Welsh-speaking heartlands, with the number dropping to under 50 per cent in Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire for the first time. However, according to the Welsh Language Use Survey in 2019–20, 22 per cent of people aged three and over were able to speak Welsh. The Annual Population Survey (APS) by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that as of March 2024, approximately 862,700, or 28.0 per cent of
7125-475: The Wylfa project. Duncan Hawthorne, chief executive of Horizon Nuclear Power, said: "...we will take steps to reduce our presence but keep the option to resume development in future". The UK government had been expected to grant a development consent order in a move to restart the project, but subsequently deferred the decision deadline until 30 September 2020. In September 2020, Hitachi announced its withdrawal from
7250-579: The ancestor of Cumbric as well as Welsh. Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the Cynfeirdd or "Early Poets" – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was supposedly composed in the Hen Ogledd , raising further questions about the dating of
7375-484: The annual costs of operating Sellafield had increased from £900 million to about £1.6 billion. The estimated lifetime undiscounted cost of dealing with the Sellafield site increased to £67.5 billion. NMP management was forced to apologise after projected clean-up costs passed the £70 billion mark in late 2013. In 2014, the final undiscounted decommissioning cost projection for Sellafield
7500-664: The associated First Generation Reprocessing Plant, producing the first British weapons grade plutonium-239 , were central to the UK nuclear weapons programme of the 1950s. Windscale Pile No.1 became operational in October 1950, just over three years from the start of construction, and Pile No.2 became operational in June 1951. With the creation of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) in 1954, ownership of Windscale Works passed to
7625-401: The break-up of the UKAEA into a research division (UKAEA) and a newly created company for nuclear production British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) in 1971, a major part of the site was transferred to BNFL ownership and management. In 1981 BNFL's Windscale and Calder Works was renamed Sellafield as part of a major reorganisation of the site and there was a consolidation of management under one head of
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#17327730419787750-408: The census. In terms of usage, ONS also reported that 14.4 per cent (443,800) of people aged three or older in Wales reported that they spoke Welsh daily in March 2024, with 5.4 per cent (165,500) speaking it weekly and 6.5 per cent (201,200) less often. Approximately 1.7 per cent (51,700) reported that they never spoke Welsh despite being able to speak the language, with the remaining 72.0 per cent of
7875-528: The consortium's fault." The indemnity had been rushed through prior to the summer parliamentary recess without notifying parliament. On 13 January 2015, the NDA announced that NMP would lose the management contract for Sellafield as the "complexity and technical uncertainties presented significantly greater challenges than other NDA sites", and the site was therefore "less well suited" to the NDA's existing standard management model. The new structure, which came into effect on 1 April 2016, saw Sellafield Ltd. become
8000-535: The country of origin. The UK retained low and intermediate level waste resulting from that reprocessing, and in substitution shipped out a radiologically equivalent amount of its own HLW. The policy was designed to be environmentally neutral by expediting, and reducing the volume, of shipments. Nuclear decommissioning is the process whereby a nuclear facility is dismantled to the point that it no longer requires measures for radiation protection. Sellafield's highest priority nuclear decommissioning challenges are mainly
8125-414: The course of the 20th century this monolingual population all but disappeared, but a small percentage remained at the time of the 1981 census. Most Welsh-speaking people in Wales also speak English. However, many Welsh-speaking people are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain and the social context, even within
8250-479: The decline in Welsh speakers particularly in the South Wales Valleys. Welsh government processes and legislation have worked to increase the proliferation of the Welsh language, for example through education. Welsh has been spoken continuously in Wales throughout history; however, by 1911, it had become a minority language, spoken by 43.5 per cent of the population. While this decline continued over
8375-531: The decommissioning is not expected until at least 2037. In 2014, radioactive sludge in the Pile Fuel Storage Pond (PFSP), built between 1948 and 1952, started to be repackaged in drums to reduce the "sludge hazard" and to allow the pond to be decommissioned. Decommissioning will require retrieval of sludge and solids, prior to dewatering and deconstruction, with retrievals planned for completion in 2016. The first generation reprocessing plant
8500-405: The decommissioning story at Sellafield as the first batch of waste was successfully retrieved from the site’s oldest waste store" and "one of the most complex and difficult decommissioning challenges in the world". Following ownership by BNFL , since 1 April 2005 the site has been owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), a non-departmental public body of the UK government created by
8625-538: The dewatering and dismantling of the remaining structure. Future work will immobilise the sludge for long-term storage, and process solids through the Fuel Handling Plant for treatment and storage. The Magnox Swarf Storage Silo is a large building on the Sellafield Site which contains intermediate level fuel cladding swarf waste arising from reprocessing Magnox reactor fuel. Once expended fuel
8750-543: The direct workforce and the site. This consortium, composed of US company URS , British company AMEC and French company Areva , was initially awarded a contract for five years, with extension options to 17 years, and in November 2008, NMP took over management of the site. In October 2008, it was revealed that the British government had agreed to issue the managing body for Sellafield an unlimited indemnity against future accidents; according to The Guardian , "the indemnity even covers accidents and leaks that are
8875-418: The distribution of fuel within the reactors, as well as the closure of Reactor 2 in 2012 to allow this fuel to be transferred into Reactor 1. Reactor 2 ceased generating on 25 April 2012 at 19:02 BST, allowing Reactor 1 to continue to operate. A license extension to operate Reactor 1 until 31 December 2015 was granted in September 2014. Reactor 1 was shut down on 30 December 2015. Defueling started in 2016, and
9000-465: The end of reprocessing, Sellafield is still the central location which receives and stores used fuel from the UK's fleet of gas cooled reactor stations. The site has also processed overseas spent fuel from several countries under contract. There had been concern that Sellafield would become a repository for unwanted international nuclear material. However, contracts agreed since 1976 with overseas customers required that all High Level Waste be returned to
9125-422: The entire BNFL Sellafield site. The remainder of the site remained in the hands of the UKAEA and was still called Windscale. Sellafield was the centre of UK nuclear reprocessing operations, which separated the uranium and plutonium from minor actinides and fission products present in spent nuclear fuel . The uranium could be used in the manufacture of new nuclear fuel, or in applications where its density
9250-491: The following decades, the language did not die out. The smallest number of speakers was recorded in 1981 with 503,000 although the lowest percentage was recorded in the most recent census in 2021 at 17.8 per cent. By the start of the 21st century, numbers began to increase once more, at least partly as a result of the increase in Welsh-medium education . The 2004 Welsh Language Use Survey showed that 21.7 per cent of
9375-463: The gas circuit in hot CO 2 was detected even before the first reactor began operating. The channel gas outlet temperature, the temperature at which the CO 2 leaves the fuel channels in the reactor core, had to be reduced, initially dropping the power output to 840 MW, which was later raised to 980 MW as more experience accumulated. A considerable portion of the output, up to 255 MW,
9500-537: The group People Against Wylfa B (PAWB – "pawb" is Welsh for "everyone"). In March 2006 the local council voted to extend the life of Wylfa A and to support the construction of Wylfa B, citing the potential loss of employment in the smelter works and nuclear station. Horizon Nuclear Power , originally an E.ON and RWE joint venture, bought by Hitachi in 2012, announced in 2009 intentions to install about 3,000 MWe of new nuclear plant at Wylfa. Horizon planned to build two advanced boiling water reactors (ABWRs) at
9625-399: The hazardous nature of the process, and to reduce the risk of WW2 enemy air attack. There were also existing rail links, and a good supply of high quality water from Wastwater . Production ceased at both factories immediately following the defeat of Japan. After WW2 , the Sellafield site was briefly in the ownership of Courtaulds for development as a rayon factory, but was re-acquired by
9750-469: The highest number of native speakers who use the language on a daily basis, and it is the Celtic language which is considered the least endangered by UNESCO . The Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the Welsh and English languages be treated equally in the public sector, as far as is reasonable and practicable. Each public body is required to prepare for approval
9875-476: The highest percentage of residents giving Welsh as their main language. The census also revealed that 3,528 wards in England, or 46% of the total number, contained at least one resident whose main language is Welsh. In terms of the regions of England , North West England (1,945), London (1,310) and the West Midlands (1,265) had the highest number of people noting Welsh as their main language. According to
10000-506: The language, its speakers and for the nation." The measure was not welcomed warmly by all supporters: Bethan Williams, chairman of the Welsh Language Society, gave a mixed response to the move, saying, "Through this measure we have won official status for the language and that has been warmly welcomed. But there was a core principle missing in the law passed by the Assembly before Christmas. It doesn't give language rights to
10125-402: The least endangered Celtic language by UNESCO . The language of the Welsh developed from the language of Britons . The emergence of Welsh was not instantaneous and clearly identifiable. Instead, the shift occurred over a long period, with some historians claiming that it had happened by as late as the 9th century , with a watershed moment being that proposed by linguist Kenneth H. Jackson ,
10250-474: The legacy of the early nuclear research and nuclear weapons programmes. There is a considerable inventory of buildings which have ceased operating but are in "care and maintenance" awaiting final decommissioning. The 2018–2021 NDA business plan for Sellafield decommissioning is focused on older legacy high hazard plants and includes the following key activities in the area of Legacy Ponds and Silos; Also: Defuelling and removal of most buildings at Calder Hall
10375-673: The material and language in which it was originally composed. This discretion stems from the fact that Cumbric was widely believed to have been the language used in Hen Ogledd. An 8th-century inscription in Tywyn shows the language already dropping inflections in the declension of nouns. Janet Davies proposed that the origins of the Welsh language were much less definite; in The Welsh Language: A History , she proposes that Welsh may have been around even earlier than 600 AD. This
10500-622: The modern period across the border in England. Archenfield was still Welsh enough in the time of Elizabeth I for the Bishop of Hereford to be made responsible, together with the four Welsh bishops, for the translation of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Welsh. Welsh was still commonly spoken there in the first half of the 19th century, and churchwardens' notices were put up in both Welsh and English until about 1860. Alexander John Ellis in
10625-609: The name for their territory, Wales. The modern names for various Romance-speaking people in Continental Europe (e.g. Walloons , Valaisans , Vlachs / Wallachians , and Włosi , the Polish name for Italians) have a similar etymology. The Welsh term for the language, Cymraeg , descends from the Brythonic word combrogi , meaning 'compatriots' or 'fellow countrymen'. Welsh evolved from Common Brittonic ,
10750-627: The other Brittonic languages. It is not clear when Welsh became distinct. Linguist Kenneth H. Jackson has suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern was complete by around AD 550, and labelled the period between then and about AD 800 "Primitive Welsh". This Primitive Welsh may have been spoken in both Wales and the Hen Ogledd ('Old North') – the Brittonic-speaking areas of what are now northern England and southern Scotland – and therefore may have been
10875-563: The ownership of Courtaulds for rayon manufacture following WW2 , but was re-acquired by the Ministry of Supply in 1947 for the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons which required the construction of the Windscale Piles and the First Generation Reprocessing Plant, and it was renamed "Windscale Works". Subsequent key developments have included the building of Calder Hall nuclear power station -
11000-473: The people of Wales in every aspect of their lives. Despite that, an amendment to that effect was supported by 18 Assembly Members from three different parties, and that was a significant step forward." On 5 October 2011, Meri Huws , Chair of the Welsh Language Board , was appointed the new Welsh Language Commissioner. She released a statement that she was "delighted" to have been appointed to
11125-537: The pond was renamed in 2018. As of 2014, the FGMSP remains as a priority decommissioning project. As well as nuclear waste, the pond holds about 1,200 cubic metres (42,000 cu ft) of radioactive sludge of unknown characteristics and 14,000 cubic metres (490,000 cu ft) of contaminated water. Decommissioning requires retrieval of the radioactive sludge into a newly built Sludge Packaging Plant, as well as fuel and skip retrieval. Completion of this will allow
11250-471: The population not being able to speak it. The National Survey for Wales, conducted by Welsh Government, has also tended to report a higher percentage of Welsh speakers than the census, with the most recent results for 2022–2023 suggesting that 18 per cent of the population aged 3 and over were able to speak Welsh, with an additional 16 per cent noting that they had some Welsh-speaking ability. Historically, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh. Over
11375-502: The population of Wales aged 3 and over, were able to speak the language. Children and young people aged three to 15 years old were more likely to report that they could speak Welsh than any other age group (48.4 per cent, 241,300). Around 1,001,500 people, or 32.5 per cent, reported that they could understand spoken Welsh. 24.7 per cent (759,200) could read and 22.2 per cent (684,500) could write in Welsh. The APS estimates of Welsh language ability are historically higher than those produced by
11500-407: The population of Wales spoke Welsh, compared with 20.8 per cent in the 2001 census , and 18.5 per cent in the 1991 census . Since 2001, however, the number of Welsh speakers has declined in both the 2011 and 2021 censuses to about 538,300 or 17.8 per cent in 2021, lower than 1991, although it is still higher in absolute terms. The 2011 census also showed a "big drop" in the number of speakers in
11625-411: The project and from the sister site at Oldbury. It will close down its development activities, but will work with the UK government and other stakeholders to facilitate future options for the two sites. On 28 January 2021, Hitachi formally withdrew its Development Consent Order application. The government indicated that it would "continue to explore future opportunities" for the site. In November 2020, it
11750-478: The project. In 2022, the UK Government expressed interest in the construction of a possible set of two EPR reactors on the site, and in 2024 announced it would purchase the site from Hitachi. Wylfa was the second nuclear power station to be built in Wales after Trawsfynydd in 1959. Following the closure of Trawsfynydd in 1991, Wylfa became Wales' only nuclear power station. Construction of Wylfa, which
11875-511: The proposed Wylfa Newydd site. Shearwater has signed a memorandum of understanding with NuScale Power for the SMRs. The plant could start generation as early as 2027 and would ultimately produce up to 3 GW of electricity and power a hydrogen generation unit producing up to 3 million kg of hydrogen per year. In April 2022, it was announced that Wylfa and Oldbury sites are candidates for two sets of EPR reactors to be constructed as
12000-512: The reactors against deteriorating welds discovered in the safety review in April 2000. Amid public controversy, Greenpeace issued an independent safety appraisal, commissioned a report from Large Associates, critical of the plant and its restart plans, but the permit to restart operation was given in August 2001. In addition to welding weaknesses, radiolytic depletion of the graphite moderator blocks
12125-518: The release of radioactive material. Following the fire, Pile 1 was unserviceable, and Pile 2, although undamaged by the fire, was shut down as a precaution. In the 1990s, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority started to implement plans to decommission, disassemble and clean up both piles. In 2004, Pile 1 still contained about 15 tonnes (14.76 L/T ) of uranium fuel , and final completion of
12250-409: The required fresh approach to this new role." Huws started her role as the Welsh Language Commissioner on 1 April 2012. Local councils and the Senedd use Welsh, issuing Welsh versions of their literature, to varying degrees. Road signs in Wales are in Welsh and English. Prior to 2016, the choice of which language to display first was the responsibility of the local council. Since then, as part of
12375-486: The safe processing and dry storage of Magnox cladding swarf. This still left the problem of removing waste material that has been stored in hazardous conditions in the MSSS. To accomplish this complex task, Sellafield Ltd has partnered with commercial firms to design, construct and operate a remotely operated waste retrieval facility called the Silo Emptying Plant (SEP). This is designed to retrieve waste from
12500-402: The shafts. Thanks to innovative filters installed by Nobel laureate Sir John Cockcroft 95% of the material was captured. As a precautionary measure, milk from surrounding farming areas was destroyed. However, no residents from the surrounding area were evacuated or informed of the danger of the radiation leakage. It is now believed that there have been 100 to 240 cancer deaths as a result of
12625-487: The silo allowed for hydrogen gas to be safely vented before it could accumulate, and the heat can be removed through re-circulation of the water. The Magnox Swarf Storage Silo ceased being filled in 2000. Many of the historic Sellafield operating practices have been superseded by better and safer alternatives. Consequently, since 2000 the Magnox Encapsulation Plant on site has been responsible for
12750-615: The spent nuclear fuel. Unlike the early US nuclear reactors at Hanford , which consisted of a graphite core cooled by water, the Windscale Piles consisted of a graphite core cooled by air. Each pile contained almost 2,000 tonnes (1,968 L/T ) of graphite, and measured over 7.3 metres (24 ft) high by 15.2 metres (50 ft) in diameter. Fuel for the reactor consisted of rods of uranium metal, approximately 30 cm (12 inches) long by 2.5 cm (0.98 inches) in diameter, and clad in aluminium . The initial fuel
12875-526: The use of Welsh in daily life, and standardised spelling. The New Testament was translated by William Salesbury in 1567, and the complete Bible by William Morgan in 1588. Modern Welsh is subdivided into Early Modern Welsh and Late Modern Welsh. Early Modern Welsh ran from the 15th century through to the end of the 16th century, and the Late Modern Welsh period roughly dates from the 16th century onwards. Contemporary Welsh differs greatly from
13000-431: The whole site for process and other purposes. The reactors were supplied by UKAEA, the turbines by C. A. Parsons and Company , and the civil engineering contractor was Taylor Woodrow Construction . In its early life Calder Hall primarily produced weapons-grade plutonium, with two fuel loads per year; electricity production was a secondary purpose. From 1964 it was mainly used on commercial fuel cycles ; in April 1995
13125-494: The world's first nuclear power station to export electricity on a commercial scale to a public grid, the Magnox fuel reprocessing plant, the prototype Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) and the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP). Decommissioning projects include the Windscale Piles, Calder Hall nuclear power station, and a number of historic reprocessing facilities and waste stores. The site
13250-525: Was an asset. The plutonium was originally used for weapons, and later in the manufacture of mixed oxide fuel ( MOX ) for thermal reactors . Reprocessing ceased on 17 July 2022, when the Magnox Reprocessing Plant completed its last batch of fuel after 58 years of operation. Sellafield Site has had three separate fuel reprocessing facilities: Magnox and THORP had a combined annual capacity of nearly 2,300 tonnes. Despite
13375-618: Was built to extract the plutonium from spent fuel to provide fissile material for the UK's atomic weapons programme , and for exchange with the United States through the US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement . The Butex process was used (a forerunner to the more efficient Purex process) and the plant operated from 1951 until 1964, with an annual capacity of 300 tonnes (295 L/T ) of pile spent fuel, or 750 tonnes (738 L/T) of low burn-up fuel . It
13500-426: Was built to support reprocessing of fuel from UK Magnox power stations through the Magnox Reprocessing Plant . It was initially planned to be used to keep fuel rods in for three months before they were reprocessed, but was used for operations between 1959 until 1985. The pond is 20 m (66 ft) wide, 150 m (490 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) deep. Originally called B30 (and nicknamed 'Dirty 30'),
13625-406: Was completed in 2019. Defueling and removal of most buildings is expected to take until 2025, followed by a care and maintenance phase from 2025 to 2096. Demolition of reactor buildings and final site clearance is planned for 2096 to 2101. A second plant named Wylfa Newydd (previously referred to as Wylfa B) has been proposed. Wylfa Newydd's proposal has been the subject of local opposition, led by
13750-429: Was consumed by the nearby Anglesey Aluminium smelting plant. The graphite cores each weigh 3,800 tonnes (3,700 long tons ); 6,156 vertical fuel channels contain 49,248 natural uranium magnox -clad fuel elements, hence the name magnox reactor. A further 200 channels allow boron control rods to enter the reactor and control the nuclear reaction. The primary coolant in the reactors is carbon dioxide gas. The site
13875-536: Was deposited into individual water-filled compartments within the MSSS. As they became full, more were added between the 1960s and 1983 totalling 22 compartments. In the early 1990s, the wet storage of this waste was no longer seen as the most effective way to store the material, and in later years was replaced with a dry storage method. The long-term storage and subsequent degradation of the magnesium alloy swarf in water causes an exothermic reaction which releases hydrogen gas. Normal operating procedures and overall design of
14000-448: Was first used to reprocess fuel from the Windscale Piles but was later repurposed to process fuel from UK Magnox reactors. Following the commissioning of the dedicated Magnox Reprocessing Plant, it became a pre-handling plant to allow oxide fuel to be reprocessed in the Magnox reprocessing plant. It was closed in 1973 after a violent reaction within the plant contaminated the entire plant and 34 workers with ruthenium -106. In 1964,
14125-545: Was in discussions with government about alternative finance mechanisms. The UK government intended to invest £5 billion in the new power station. Previously, government policy had been not to invest directly in new nuclear projects. Horizon Nuclear Power submitted a Development Consent Order application for the Wylfa Newydd project to the Planning Inspectorate on 1 June 2018. In January 2019, it
14250-413: Was increased to £79.1 billion, and in 2015 to £117.4 billion. The annual operating cost was projected to be £2 billion in 2016. In 2018, it was revealed that the cost could be £121 billion by 2120. The cost does not include the costs for future geological disposal (GDF). These include research, design, construction, operation and closure. The undiscounted lifetime costs for
14375-603: Was loaded into the Windscale Piles in July 1950. By July 1952 the separation plant was being used to separate plutonium and uranium from spent fuel. On 10 October 1957, the Windscale Piles were shut down following a fire in Pile 1 during a scheduled graphite annealing procedure. The fire badly damaged the pile core and released an estimated 750 terabecquerels (20,000 curies ) of radioactive material, including 22 TBq of Cs-137 and 740 TBq of I-131 into
14500-518: Was passed and received Royal Assent, thus making the Welsh language an officially recognised language within Wales. The measure: The measure required public bodies and some private companies to provide services in Welsh. The Welsh government's Minister for Heritage at the time, Alun Ffred Jones , said, "The Welsh language is a source of great pride for the people of Wales, whether they speak it or not, and I am delighted that this measure has now become law. I am very proud to have steered legislation through
14625-700: Was rated 5 out of a possible 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale . The site was established with the creation of Royal Ordnance Factory ROF Sellafield by the Ministry of Supply in 1942; built by John Laing & Son at the hamlet of Low Sellafield. The nearby sister factory, ROF Drigg, had been constructed in 1940, 3 miles (5 km) to the south-east near the village of Drigg. Both sites were classed as Explosive ROFs , producing high-explosive at ROF Drigg, and propellant at ROF Sellafield . They were built in this location to be remote from large centres of population because of
14750-432: Was removed from the Magnox reactors, the magnesium cladding was removed prior to the chemical processing of the fuel rod. To accomplish this, the fuel can was fed through a machine known as a "decanner" which stripped the cladding off the inner rod creating the swarf of broken magnesium alloy cladding as a waste product. Since the start of commercial Magnox reprocessing in 1964 (the same year MSSS began operations), this waste
14875-516: Was reported that a US consortium of Bechtel , Southern Company and Westinghouse Electric Company was in talks with the British Government about reviving the Wylfa Newydd project, by building AP1000 reactors at the site. In January 2021, Shearwater Energy presented plans for a hybrid plant, to consist of a wind farm and small modular reactors (SMRs), to be installed adjacent to the existing Wylfa power station but separate from
15000-471: Was reported that the nuclear plant's funding was questionable, after £2 billion had been spent on the project. The reports noted that a dispute between the proposed plant's builder Hitachi and the UK government over funding had thrown the future construction into doubt, and that an upcoming meeting later in the month would be the location of an announcement regarding the plant's future. On 17 January 2019, Hitachi announced that it would "suspend" work on
15125-710: Was selected as the UK government's preferred site for a gigawatt-scale plant. Welsh language Welsh ( Cymraeg [kəmˈraːiɡ] or y Gymraeg [ə ɡəmˈraːiɡ] ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people . Welsh is spoken natively in Wales , by some in England , and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province , Argentina ). It
15250-418: Was still of concern and PAWB continue to campaign for early shut-down of the plant as well as against any nuclear replacement. On 20 July 2006, the NDA announced that the station would be shut down in 2010 to enable the closure and decommissioning of the Magnox spent fuel reprocessing plant at Sellafield . Springfields Fuels Limited ended production of Magnox fuel elements in 2008 due to these plans. In 2010,
15375-473: Was the world's first nuclear power station to provide electricity on a commercial scale to a public grid. The Calder Hall design was codenamed PIPPA (Pressurised Pile Producing Power and Plutonium) by the UKAEA to denote the plant's dual commercial and military role. Construction started in 1953. Calder Hall had four Magnox reactors capable of generating 60 MWe (net) of power each, reduced to 50 MWe in 1973. The reactors also supplied steam to
15500-454: Was undertaken by British Nuclear Design & Construction (BNDC), a consortium backed by English Electric , Babcock & Wilcox Ltd and Taylor Woodrow Construction , began in 1963. The reactors were supplied by The Nuclear Power Group (TNPG) and the turbines by English Electric . These were the largest and last Magnox-type reactors to be built in the UK. Wylfa was also the second British nuclear power station, following Oldbury , to have
15625-475: Was used as a coolant. In 2012, Reactor 2 was shut down. Reactor 1 was switched off on 30 December 2015, ending 44 years of operation at the site. Wylfa Newydd (literally New Wylfa) was a proposed new nuclear station on a site adjacent to the old plant. An application to build two advanced boiling water reactors was submitted by Horizon Nuclear Power to the Office of Nuclear Regulation on 4 April 2017. In September 2020, parent company Hitachi withdrew from
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