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Hinkley Point A Nuclear Power Station
Hinkley Point A nuclear power station is a former Magnox nuclear power station. It is located on a site in Somerset on the Bristol Channel coast, west of the River Parrett estuary. The ongoing decommissioning process is being managed by Nuclear Decommissioning Authority licensee Nuclear Restoration Services. History Hinkley Point A was one of three Magnox power stations located close to the mouth of the River Severn and the Bristol Channel, the others being Oldbury Nuclear Power Station, Oldbury, and Berkeley nuclear power station, Berkeley. The construction of the power station, which was undertaken by a consortium backed by English Electric, Babcock & Wilcox Ltd and Taylor Woodrow Construction, began in 1957. The reactors and the turbines were supplied by English Electric. On 22 April 1966, the Ministry of Power (United Kingdom), Minister of Power Richard Marsh, Baron Marsh, Richard Marsh officially opened the new nuclear power plant. In the late 1970s, two PDP-11, DEC P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hinkley Point
Hinkley Point is a headland on the Bristol Channel coast of Somerset, England, north of Bridgwater and west of Burnham-on-Sea, close to the mouth of the River Parrett. Excavations in 2014 and 2015, carried out by Cotswold Archaeology and funded by Électricité de France (EDF) in preparation for the construction of Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, discovered a farming settlement at the site dating from the Iron Age and then a post Roman cemetery. Hinkley Point adjoins Bridgwater Bay, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and nature reserve, and is a popular location for birdwatching and Fossil collecting, fossil hunting. A visitor centre in Bridgwater gives access to information, as well as running tours of the plant. There is also a nature trail which features plants, birds and butterflies. The exposed location of Hinkley Point meant that it was considered ideal for wind generation. However, a proposal to build 12 wind turbines close to the site of the nuclear power s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Parrett
The River Parrett is a river that flows through the counties of Dorset and Somerset in South West England, from its source in the Thorney Mills springs in the hills around Chedington in Dorset. Flowing northwest through Somerset and the Somerset Levels to its mouth at Burnham-on-Sea, into the Bridgwater Bay nature reserve on the Bristol Channel, the Parrett and its tributaries drain an area of – about 50 per cent of Somerset's land area, with a population of 300,000. The Parrett's main tributaries include the Rivers Tone, Isle, and Yeo, and the River Cary via the King's Sedgemoor Drain. The long river is tidal for up to Oath. Between Langport and Bridgwater, the river falls only , so it is prone to frequent flooding in winter and during high tides. Many approaches have been tried since at least the medieval period to reduce the incidence and effect of floods and to drain the surrounding fields. In Anglo-Saxon times, the river formed a boundary between ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Electric Diesel Engines
English Electric's K, RK and V type diesel engines were manufacturing, manufactured by the English Electric company of the United Kingdom for stationary, rail transport and maritime use between 1934 and 1976. History Initially, the "K" type engine developed in the 1930s were offered in I4, I6, I7 and I8 variants, had 2-valve cylinder heads and ran at 600-680Revolutions per minute, rpm. In 1940, turbocharging became an option, boosting power output by about 61%. Due to the demand of more power, the Mark I "RK" (Revised K) and "V" type were introduced in 1947. The "V" type were built in V8, V12 and V16 configurations. In 1951, the engines received 4-valve cylinder heads, thus creating Mark II "RK" and "V" types which ran at 750-850rpm. intercooler, Intercooling became an option in 1960, adding a "C" to the engine designation should it be equipped. More revisions saw the creation of the Mark III engines in 1962. Unlike other comparable engines (and unusually for its size), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hansard
''Hansard'' is the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official printer to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament at Westminster. Origins Though the history of the ''Hansard'' began in the British Parliament, each of Britain's colonies developed a separate and distinctive history. Before 1771, the British Parliament had long been a highly secretive body. The official record of the actions of the House was publicly available but there was no record of the debates. The publication of remarks made in the House became a breach of parliamentary privilege, punishable by the two Houses of Parliament (UK), Houses of Parliament. As the populace became interested in parliamentary debates, more independent newspapers began publishing unofficial accounts of them. The many penalties implemented by the governmen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Weapons And The United Kingdom
In 1952, the United Kingdom became the third country (after the Nuclear weapons of the United States, United States and the Soviet atomic bomb project, Soviet Union) to develop and test nuclear weapons, and is one of the List of states with nuclear weapons#Recognized nuclear-weapon states, five nuclear-weapon states under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The UK initiated a nuclear weapons programme, codenamed Tube Alloys, during the Second World War. At the Quebec Conference, 1943, Quebec Conference in August 1943, it was British contribution to the Manhattan Project, merged with the American Manhattan Project. The British government considered nuclear weapons to be a joint discovery, but the American Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (McMahon Act) restricted other countries, including the UK, from access to information about nuclear weapons. Fearing the loss of Britain's great power status, the UK resumed its own project, now codenamed High Explosive Research. O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weapons-grade Plutonium
Weapons-grade nuclear material is any fissionable nuclear material that is pure enough to make a nuclear weapon and has properties that make it particularly suitable for nuclear weapons use. Plutonium and uranium in grades normally used in nuclear weapons are the most common examples. (These nuclear materials have other categorizations based on their purity.) Only fissile isotopes of certain elements have the potential for use in nuclear weapons. For such use, the concentration of fissile isotopes uranium-235 and plutonium-239 in the element used must be sufficiently high. Uranium from natural sources is enriched by isotope separation, and plutonium is produced in a suitable nuclear reactor. Experiments have been conducted with uranium-233 (the fissile material at the heart of the thorium fuel cycle). Neptunium-237 and some isotopes of americium might be usable, but it is not clear that this has ever been implemented. The latter substances are part of the minor actinides in s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnox (alloy)
Magnox is an alloy—mainly of magnesium with small amounts of aluminium and other metals—used in cladding unenriched uranium metal fuel with a non-oxidising covering to contain fission products in nuclear reactors. Magnox is short for Magnesium non-oxidising. This material has the advantage of a low neutron capture Neutron cross-section, cross section, but has two major disadvantages: *It limits the maximum temperature (to about 415 Celsius), and hence the thermal efficiency, of the plant. *It reacts with water, preventing long-term storage of High level waste, spent fuel under water in spent fuel pools. The magnox alloy Al80 has a composition of 0.8% aluminium and 0.004% beryllium. See also * Magnox nuclear power reactors. References Magnesium alloys Nuclear materials Aluminium–magnesium alloys Aluminium alloys {{alloy-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calder Hall Nuclear Power Station
Calder Hall Nuclear Power Station is a former Magnox nuclear power station at Sellafield in Cumbria in North West England. Calder Hall was the first full-scale nuclear power station to enter operation in the West, and was the sister plant to the Chapelcross plant in Scotland. Both were commissioned and originally operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. The primary purpose of both plants was to produce weapons-grade plutonium for the UK's nuclear weapons programme, but they also generated electrical power for the National Grid. Decommissioning by Sellafield Ltd started in 2005. The site is partially demolished and is expected that only the reactor cores and associated radiation shielding will remain by 2027, when it will enter a period of extended care and maintenance using the "safestore" principle, before final demolition. Description It was decided by the UK Government to proceed with the civil nuclear power programme in 1952, and construction at Calder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hunterston A Nuclear Power Station
Hunterston A nuclear power station is a former Magnox nuclear power station located at Hunterston in Ayrshire, Scotland, adjacent to Hunterston B. The ongoing decommissioning process is being managed by Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) subsidiary Magnox Ltd. History Construction of the power station, which was undertaken by a consortium of GEC and Simon Carves, began in 1957 and the facility was opened by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother on 22 September 1964. Hunterston A had two Magnox reactors capable of generating 180MWe each. The reactors were supplied by GEC and the turbines by C.A. Parsons & Company. The main civil engineering contractor was Mowlem. The Magnox reactors used natural uranium fuel (in magnox alloy 'cans') within a graphite core, and were cooled by carbon dioxide gas. Each reactor, which consisted of more than 3,000 fuel channels, was enclosed in a steel pressure vessel. Eight boilers, known as Steam Raising Units, were located around each react ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PDP-11
The PDP–11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers originally sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the late 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sold, making it one of DEC's most successful product lines. The PDP-11 is considered by some experts to be the most popular minicomputer. The PDP–11 included a number of innovative features in its instruction set and additional general-purpose registers that made it easier to program than earlier models in the PDP series. Further, the innovative Unibus system allowed external devices to be more easily interfaced to the system using direct memory access, opening the system to a wide variety of peripherals. The PDP–11 replaced the PDP–8 in many real-time computing applications, although both product lines lived in parallel for more than 10 years. The ease of programming of the PDP–11 made it popular for general-pur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Marsh, Baron Marsh
Richard William Marsh, Baron Marsh, (14 March 1928 – 29 July 2011) was a British politician and business executive. Background and early life Marsh was the son of William Marsh, a foundry worker from Belvedere in southeast London. His father subsequently worked for the Great Western Railway, and the family moved to Swindon. He was educated at Jennings Street Secondary School, Swindon, Woolwich Polytechnic and Ruskin College, Oxford. He initially worked as an official for the National Union of Public Employees from 1951 to 1959, during which time he sat on the Clerical and Administrative Whitley Council for the National Health Service. Parliamentary and ministerial career After unsuccessfully standing at Hertford in 1951, Marsh was elected as Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Greenwich at the 1959 general election. As a backbencher he submitted a private member's bill in 1960 which despite Government opposition became the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ministry Of Power (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Power was a United Kingdom government ministry dealing with issues concerning energy. The Ministry of Power (then named Ministry of Fuel and Power) was created on 11 June 1942 from functions separated from the Board of Trade. It took charge of coal production, allocation of fuel supplies, control of energy prices and petrol rationing. These had previously been dealt with by the Secretary for Mines and in the case of petroleum since 1940 by the Secretary for Petroleum. The Petroleum Board, responsible for the coordination of the war-time petroleum 'pool' for oil supplies (except oil for the Royal Navy), continued in this role until the Board was dissolved in 1948. It also took over responsibility for electricity from the Ministry of War Transport and its predecessor the Ministry of Transport. The Ministry of Fuel and Power was renamed the Ministry of Power in January 1957. The Ministry of Power later became part of the Ministry of Technology on 6 Octobe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
