The 61-meter chimney sits on top of an eleven-story reprocessing plant and stands 122 meters from the ground in total, making it the tallest historic structure on the site since it was built in the 1950s – but not for much longer.
Sellafield Ltd’s demolition team is developing plans to safely dismantle it but, because the chimney sits right at the heart of one of the busiest areas of the most complex nuclear site in Europe, they’ll not be able to use explosives to bring it down.
Instead they’ll be using a special platform to remove the 600 tonnes of concrete and rebar, and over 25 tonnes of stainless steel that make up the huge structure.
Project manager Matthew Hodgson said: “The job of bringing down the stack is going to be a delicate operation to ensure 100 per cent safety of all personnel and surrounding nuclear plants. We have employed Nuvia Limited who has been working with us and a number of other contractors, including Delta Steeplejacks, for the last three years on the demolition scheme.
“Because we can’t use explosives, we will use an ingenious self-climbing platform which will bring the chimney down bit by bit in a controlled manner.”
This clever technique has recently been used in the demolition of the Battersea Power Station’s famous chimneys, which have actually then been re-built to preserve the appearance of the capital’s iconic building.
Source: Sellafield Ltd