March 1960: Berkeley nuclear power station

Sat on the eastern bank of the River Severn in Gloucestershire, Berkeley nuclear power station came into service in 1962 and produced electricity for 27 years.

Built for the CEGB by AEl-John Thompson Nuclear Energy Company, Berkeley was one of the UK’s 11 Magnox reactor nuclear power stations that were built from 1956 to 1971 and would provide a fleet average of 37 years of operational life. Work began on Berkeley in 1956 and in March 1960 The Engineer provided an update of progress at the site, which at that stage was concentrating on installing the reactor.

“ln No. 1 pressure vessel the graphite core, which contains the fuel elements and control rods and serves as moderator and reflector, is being laid,” our reporter noted. “This core is a structure consisting of about 97,000 pieces of graphite, in the form of blocks and tiles, built up into a regular polygonal prism, 30ft high and 48ft diameter overall.”

Our unnamed reporter continued: “The core proper, that part of the structure in which the fuel elements are located, is 24ft high and 42ft in diameter and is surrounded by the reflector, which has a radial thickness of 2ft and an axial thickness of 3ft at the top and bottom. The core is built up of twelve layers of 8in by 8in by 30in graphite bricks, successive layers being interleaved with two thicknesses of graphite tiles, keyed together.”