Chapelcross power station, minutes prior to demolition of the cooling towers, on 20th May 2007, 50 years after they were erected. The towers took three years to build and seconds to bring down.
Chapelcross was a Magnox-type four-reactor station with eight 30 MW turbines. At full power when operational, the station produced enough electricity to supply every home in south-west Scotland, the Borders and Cumbria. Chapelcross Reactor 1 was brought on-line for electricity generation on 25 February 1959 with all four reactors fully operational within the next 15 months.
The station was officially opened on 2 May 1959. In just 10 seconds, nearly 30,000 tonnes of concrete and iron was reduced to a pile of rubble on the ground. Decommissioning began when the station closed in 2004. Final site clearance is expected to be completed by 2128. See
Link (
Archive Link )
See
Link (
Archive Link ) for a webcam of the event.
For the second picture in this series, see
NY2169 : Chapelcross nuclear power station demolition 2.