Work is getting under way on removing more than 38,000 spent uranium fuel rods from a former nuclear plant in southern Scotland. It is the latest step in the £800m decommissioning process at the Chapelcross site near Annan.
It is five years since it ceased energy production and almost two years since its cooling towers were demolished. The fuel will be extracted over the next three years and taken by road to Sellafield in Cumbria for reprocessing.
A total of 269 loads will leave Chapelcross between the beginning of March and the end of 2011.
The Chapelcross nuclear plant was built in 1959 and ceased generation in 2004.
In 2007, its landmark cooling towers were demolished and last year formal permission was received to start the lengthy process of defuelling its four reactors.
– from bbc. 17 Feb 2009