After 44 years of safe operation, Magnox’s Oldbury power station – the world’s oldest operating nuclear power station – ceased generation at 11am on 29 February 2012. Read it all..

EDF announces progress on UK nuclear new build and hails Franco-British declaration to strengthen co-operation on energy

• Signs agreements with Areva, Kier BAM and Bridgwater College
• Confirms deals to boost training opportunities and create jobs in UK and France Read it all..

The NDA has published a Credible Options Study covering the remaining nuclear materials at Dounreay referred to as ‘exotics’. The study identifies two strategic options for the material. Read it all..

Large tracts of land at two Magnox sites have been officially sanctioned as available for new development after the last remaining nuclear regulations were removed. 

The land at Oldbury and Berkeley is equivalent to around 100 football pitches and can now be disposed of either by sale or for lease after the Energy Minister Lord Marland signed orders revoking the designating directions on a total of 46 hectares at the Gloucestershire sites. Each plot has already been released from the conditions of its nuclear licence, or de-licensed. Read it all..

Pictured: back row (left to right) Gary McKeating, Head of Socio Economic, NMP, Iain Irving, Director of Stakeholder Relations, Sellafield and Peter Woolley, Non-Exec Director, GEN II. Front row (seated at the table) are John Tyson, Sellafield Contract Manager and Mike Smith, CEO of GEN II

The contract is to provide apprentice training for approximately 80 young people a year, further and higher education courses, such as foundation degrees in a number of nuclear disciplines and short courses ranging from safety to technical subjects.

The announcement of the contract, which is currently anticipated to be worth around £25 million over a maximum period of eight years, was made in the Skills Academy’s Northwest flagship centre, ENERGUS, which is where the majority of the Sellafield Ltd apprentices and HE learners are to be trained. 

The important announcement is timely, marking the beginning of National Apprentice Week. Read it all..

The eagerly awaited Certificate of Nuclear Professionalism has had its first cohort of students through one of its seven modules. The Technical Leadership module delivered by Aston Business School commenced delivery on the 25th January 2012. Read it all..

Support for local housing, leisure facilities, transport and local ecology schemes are just some of the ways Somerset residents will benefit from a £30 million package from EDF Energy.

The company has signed an agreement with West Somerset Council and a local landowner which will see the energy company providing £30 million to mitigate the impacts of the works to prepare the site for the proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

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Horizon has completed the purchase of land which is key to the development of its proposed new nuclear power station near Oldbury-on-Severn in South Gloucestershire. The land is being purchased by Horizon Nuclear Power Oldbury Limited from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), under terms agreed in the 2009 land auction. Read it all..

SEPA has announced its intention to hold a public consultation on the proposed solid low level radioactive waste disposal facility at Dounreay. Read it all..

The sky-line at Dungeness A is about to change as of work starts to knock down a series of redundant buildings.

The £600,000 project will see the demolition of the former administrative building, the main site offices and the site canteen together with a number of smaller ancillary buildings including the boron dust building and flocculation tanks.

Many of the facilities were essential while the nuclear power station was generating electricity, but since the station stopped generating in 2007, a programme has been in place to decommission the site now that defuelling is almost complete.

Ray Jepps, Site Director, said “This work is essential as we prepare to clear the south side of site – due to start in April 2012 – and is vital in enabling Dungeness A to reach a state of ‘care and maintenance by 2022.’