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.

NDA Head of Programme Dr Brian Burnett said: 

“This is a major achievement for the NDA in terms of returning these pieces of land to the market. We are extremely proud to have reached this stage which marks the culmination of a huge amount of work by Magnox Ltd and their contractors.”

Last year marked the first time that land had been fully released for further use, when two plots of land at Capenhurst, totalling seven hectares, were transferred to the neighbouring nuclear site, URENCO. The lifting of all nuclear regulations covering the Oldbury and Berkeley plots marks the largest release of land since the NDA was formed.

At Oldbury, half of the original site has been released including one of the three silt lagoons. Last year, it was the largest single portion of land to be de-licensed in the UK and followed the submission of a detailed safety case that involved surface surveys of grounds and buildings, plus analysis of soil and sediment samples to asses the impact of operations over the past 50 years.

Part of the 35 hectares will now to be used by Horizon Nuclear Power, a joint venture between E.ON and RWE, who are developing plans for a new nuclear power station on land north east of the Magnox site.

The 36 hectares remaining within the nuclear licence contain the site’s operational plant, including the turbine hall and reactor buildings.

At Berkeley, meanwhile, about a third of the original site is being marketed for use as a business park after revocation of the designating directions.  

The 11 hectares, out of the total 38-hectare site, comprise a range of buildings including offices, warehouses, laboratories, engineering workshops, stores, substations, a pump house, waste management compounds, café, conference centre, security lodge and car park.  

Known as the Berkeley Centre, the offices and labs were established as a centre of nuclear research and development for the UK electricity supply industry back in the 1960s. Later, the Berkeley Centre provided direct engineering and technical support to all the Magnox power stations.   

Many buildings had no history of radiological use while others, including radio-chemistry labs and waste facilities, were decommissioned and demolished.  

The site achieved de-licensing in 2006, a first de-licensing since the NDA was formed. With revocation of the designating direction, the final piece of the jigsaw has now been completed, marking the end of the NDA’s clean-up mission at Berkeley Centre.

Designating orders

• The 2004 Energy Act established the NDA and also designated which sites and facilities would fall within its decommissioning remit.
• Revocation of the directions giving the NDA responsibility for a site is issued by the Secretary of State.
• ‘De-designation’ allows the site to be transferred to another operator and brought back into use for a different purpose.   

The nuclear licence 

• A nuclear licence is issued by the Government’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to nuclear installations and lays down strict conditions covering activities.
• Removal of the licence, or de-licensing, must be approved by the HSE’s Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR).
• De-licensing at Oldbury and Berkeley was one of the last major milestones in the decommissioning process for the two plots of land.