A nuclear power plant in Scotland has reached a milestone with the complete defuelling of the third of its four reactors.

Located near the town of Annan in Dumfries and Galloway in southwest Scotland, the Chapelcross nuclear plant stopped producing power in 2004. It was granted permission from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) four years later to begin defuelling of the plant.

As part of the process, more than 38,000 fuel elements are being cleared from all the four reactors and so far 34,552 elements have been removed from the plant. Reactors 1, 3 and 4 are now completely free of fuel, representing 91% of the defuelling programmme.

Richard Murray, the Plant manager said: “This is a great achievement and another significant defuelling milestone for the site as we head closer towards safely removing all the fuel from Chapelcross. Key to the success of the project has been the continued dedication of the skilled workforce currently focused on the defuelling project.”

The defueling process is expected to be completed by mid next year.