Dr. Michael Rushton and Prof. Bill Lee have had their latest article on nuclear co-generation published in the Nuclear Institute’s Nuclear Future magazine. It is called “Co-generation in the early-days of nuclear power in the United Kingdom Part 1: Calder Hall and Chapelcross” – and can be found in the December 2020 issue (member login required).
The article discusses how the first-generation Magnox plants at Calder-Hall and Chapelcross did more than generate electricity. These plants were true multi-role facilities which in addition generating electrictiy produced radioistopes for medical and industrial uses in addition to providing process heat to the Sellafield site. These historic examples of co-generation may show the way forward and allow next generation of nuclear power stations to be true multi-purpose facilities.
This article accompanies an earlier webinar delivered on the 20th October 2020 by Michael and hosted by the Nuclear Institute entitled Multi-Role Nuclear Technology: Learning from Historical Co-Generation. The webinar additionally discussed the atomic smelters of the Wilson era (Anglesey Aluminium and Invergordon) and the nuclear steelmaking clubs of the 1970s. These will also be discussed in the second part of our historical co-generation article due for publication in Nuclear Future very soon.
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