What a treat the past two days have been for the Decommissioning & Waste management group. On Tuesday we took a tour of Aberthaw Power Station on the South Wales coast to learn about how the former coal station is carefully being decommissioned and the proposed plan for the redevelopment of the site.
Owned by CCR Energy, a private development company, the 500-acre site was once home to the world’s biggest coal station when it first opened in the 1960s, generating 1.5 GW of electricity, about the equivalent of one of Hinkley Point C’s reactors. Hinkley happened to be in view across the Bristol Channel that day, a reminder of the massive opportunity new nuclear brings to communities. It was great to hear about the potential plans for the site, including possible plans for and SMR or AMR. A no-brainer in our view!
We wrapped up Tuesday with a dinner in the centre of Cardiff which was full of fantastic networking and catching up with colleagues and friends. A big thank you goes to Mott MacDonald for sponsoring the drinks reception.
The following day we held our decommissioning group meeting, co-hosted by Wales Nuclear Forum and sponsored by Costain and Vulcain Engineering. We explored the theme of ‘innovation’ and it was great to see the group getting involved with interactive presentations. Debbie Whitaker from PA consulting gave a wonderful talk about using our strengths to properly innovate and problem solve. It prompted some fascinating discussions about how we play to our strengths in our respective roles and the way these strengths, when combined with others, can be built into a problem solving machine.
We heard too from Pheobe Lynch from Nuclear Restoration Services and Bettina Bockelmann-Evans from CCR Energy who sat on a panel with Debbie to discuss how sustainability can drive innovation in decommissioning. The conversation explored what the blockers and enablers of innovation were within their respective companies and the industry as a whole, and it was satisfying to have some great questions from the audience that referenced earlier presentations. Stephen Troman’s talk about his work with the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management was particularly engaging.
We finished the afternoon with some quick fire presentations from the supply chain, which detailed the ways in which they are implementing innovative solutions to challenges across the sector.
Thank you to all those who attended and made the event such a success. If you like to find out more about our upcoming business groups, please visit The Hub.
Ella Ashdown is the NIA’s Member Relations & Events Executive
