Maintenance at Chapelcross [nuclear power plant]

The Chapelcross nuclear power station is located in south west Scotland, in Dumfriesshire, and has been in operation since 1959, making it the longest serving nuclear power station in Scotland. The four reactors at Chapelcross are of the Magnox design and contain approximately 10,000 fuel elements, steam is raised in a two stage boiler, four to each reactor and supplies two Parsons steam turbines. This results in a station layout with sixteen boilers and eight turbo alternators, a lot of plant to maintain. In addition to the conventional plant the nuclear island contains plant ranging from large centrifugal gas circulators to sensitive electronic nuclear instrumentation. Chapelcross is a stand alone site and also has to maintain a fuel cooling pond, a pool of site vehicles and basic infrastructure