Magnox said it hit a major decommissioning milestone on April 16 when the first of the four reactors at the Chapelcross site near Dumfriesshire, Scotland was fully de-fuelled. Chapelcross was the first commercial nuclear power plant in Scotland.

The plant is a four-reactor station with eight 30 MW turbines now undergoing early decommissioning.

Reactor 3 has now had all 9,245 fuel elements removed. Reactor 4 is due to be fully de-fuelled by the beginning of May. A total of 38,075 fuel elements are being removed from all four reactors and dispatched for reprocessing to Sellafield in approximately 260 flasks.

Currently, 23,203 fuel elements have now been removed from the site in 158 flasks, each containing about 150 fuel elements. This represents 61 percent of the fuel at Chapelcross, and the defuelling project is on course for completion by June 2013.

Magnox Limited is the management and operations contractor responsible for the day-to-day operation of the site under contract to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

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