Page 340 - Beyond Decommissioning

316 Beyond Decommissioning

owner of the site was no longer in business, and the subsequent owner was required to
pay for the second decommissioning project. Luckily that owner could afford to pay,
and no legal actions were needed. In case of legal complications, the public reuse of
the site might have been delayed for undefined times. A somehow anectodical descrip-
tion of this difficult project is given in Los Angeles Times (1986).

7.7 Chapelcross NPP, United Kingdom (Dumfries
and Galloway, 2017)

Chapelcross (CX) was one of the world’s earliest NPPs, with four Magnox reactors
generating from 1959 to 1960 until 2004. When CX permanently closed 80% of
the workforce lived within 15km miles of the site and 97% within 35 miles, with a
major share of the £30 million ($40 million) annual payroll being injected into the
local economy each year. To mitigate the socioeconomic impact of the plant’s closure,
Dumfries and Galloway Council and its partners launched a large economic develop-
ment project.
In the period 2012–17 the Council, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
(NDA) and Scottish Enterprise have been cooperating on the NDA funded CX Project,
which assists businesses in the area. Until 2017, the CX Project has generated a turn-
over of £3,808,775 ($5 million), directly assisted almost 300 people, with a focus on
194 businesses. Businesses have been several, including among others: from pet
grooming to tattooing, whiskey to tablet, and graphic design to motor racing. The
CX Project has also helped 114 young people to date to launch their own businesses
by investing some £117k ($153k).
Besides almost £1.1m ($1.5m) has been invested by the council in the Gretna Cen-
tral Avenue Park and public projects. The project has also funded Functional Skills
courses in Mathematics and English for ex CX staff, with the aim to qualify them
for prospective jobs.
As of late, the CX Project has been used to prepare the “Chapelcross Development
Framework,” as a scheme to assist the development of the site beyond the project com-
pletion. The objective is to incorporate a mix of employment and industrial uses.
Unlike the initial CX Project, which focused on local businesses, the new stage of
the program will focus on the development and potential of the site itself, with the aim
at attracting investors from within and outside the region in emerging sectors.
The site has road and rail links, as well as main power grid connection, which
should be attractive to a number of potential investors. Within this sector, it is worth
mentioning a plan that surfaced a few years ago. Scotia Global Energy, an environ-
mentally friendly energy firm disclosed plans to construct an experimental green
energy park at the former CX site. In principle, the initiative could create 500 jobs,
that is, more jobs than the site’s historical peak. The enterprise would also include
an administration building, public exhibition space, flexible office accommodation,
laboratory rooms for energy research, and an area for community energy projects. Pre-
liminary plans have stated that the onsite infrastructure, namely the electricity grid
connection, its proximity to the gas grid, and the water works are an “ideal mix”
(Scottish Construction Now, 2015).