Building Sizewell a Nuclear Power Station
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It was a new world BUILDING SIZEWELL A NUCLEAR POWER STATION 1 www.buildingworkersstories.com ISBN 978-0-903109-38-3 Cover photograph © Clive Warneford 2 PREFACE This pamphlet is the fourth to be produced as part of a two-year University of Westminster research project, entitled ‘Constructing Post-War Britain: Building Workers’ Stories, 1950- 1970’, which began in August 2010. The project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust and aims to collect oral history testimonies from construction workers who were employed on five of the highest profile sites and developments of that era: Stevenage New Town; Barbican development, City of London; South Bank arts complex; Sizewell A power station; and the M1 motorway. The aim of the research is both to gain a greater understanding of the processes of change within the construction industry during these decades and to highlight the role that construction workers played in the creation of the post-war built environment. For more information see project website www.buildingworkersstories.com The researchers on the project are: Christine Wall, Linda Clarke, Charlie McGuire and Olivia Muñoz Rojas The research for this pamphlet was conducted between January and November 2011. Ten former workers were interviewed. Bill Herrington Jim Ward former foreman engineer, former fitter, interviewed in Hoxne on 16 November 2011 interviewed in Lowestoft on 13 September 2011 Bill Howard former fitter, Ian Roberts interviewed in Leiston on 18 January 2011 former welder, interviewed in Kesgrave on Dick Nettlingham 14 September 2011 former labourer and crane driver, interviewed in Leiston on 31 January 2011 George Garnham former scaffolder, Pat Cable interviewed in Ipswich on former diver and rigger, 14 September 2011 interviewed in Aldeburgh on 1 February 2011 John Mittel Patrick O’Kane former welder, former concrete worker and tunneler, interviewed in Kesgrave on 12 October 2011 interviewed in Leiston on 3rd March 2011 Kenny Tye former boatman, interviewed in Leiston on 10 May 2011 3 INTRODUCTION . Upon its completion in 1966, Sizewell A was hailed as potentially the most powerful nuclear power station in the world. The construction of the station, which was spread out over twenty- four acres, was a vast undertaking, lasting five years and combining both conventional and new approaches to civil engineering with some of the more specialist aspects of construction engineering, and those specific to the demands of nuclear power engineering. The consortium that built Sizewell A reflected this and comprised Taylor Woodrow Construction, a company with significant experience in building and civil engineering, along with two notable heavy engineering firms, Babcock and Wilcox; and English Electric. The construction of Sizewell A involved the deployment of some of the newest technology available to the industry and innovative construction techniques, including new underwater construction methods, as well as the establishment of completely clean working conditions for the building of the reactors. Sizewell set a new trend in nuclear power construction and was more compact, the first to link two reactor houses under one roof, with all of the control and instrumentation services positioned between them in a common equipment building and control annexe.1 This made refuelling quicker and easier. Sizewell also posed significant and uncommon logistical challenges in the construction process and linked together engineering workshops in the West of Scotland with a construction site in East Anglia, as well as off-shore and on-shore workers on Sizewell itself. 1 Construction News, 28 March 1963; The Times, 25 November 1960 Bill Herrington Bill Howard Dick Nettlingham Pat Cable Patrick O’Kane 4 At its peak, there were over 2,000 workers employed on the construction of Sizewell A power station. This included different types of machine operators, fitters, carpenters, concrete gangs, electricians, welders, platers, laggers, scaffolders and many other categories of operative. The process of building the station involved the shifting of around 700,000 cubic yards of earth, and the application of approximately 300,000 cubic yards of formwork, 5000 tons of steel and 200,000 cubic yards of concrete. It was work that was hard and at times dangerous and hazardous, often requiring great skill and precision and provoking considerable public interest. The 1961 August bank holiday, for example, drew a crowd of 3,000 visitors to an observation platform that had been specially built to allow members of the public watch the construction process 2. The men who built Sizewell A worked in compressed air in underwater tunnels, at great heights, in the freezing cold mud and in the extreme heat. Some were locals, working on their first construction job, while others were from far-flung parts of Britain and Ireland and experienced in various aspects of engineering construction. Many of the men lived in camp accommodation for the duration of the job and saw little of their families. Together, they helped bring to life one of the biggest and, at a final cost of £62 million, most expensive construction projects of the 1960s. 2 The Times, 21 September 1961 Kenny Tye Jim Ward Ian Roberts George Garnham John Mittel 5 BACKGROUND Sizewell A’s origins lie in the 1955 White to the CEGB, which became responsible for paper A Programme of Nuclear Power, which their running and maintenance. outlined a ten-year plan for the construction of 12 stations at a cost of £300 million, Sizewell A was built by Nuclear Design producing 2000 MW output. 3 In March 1957, and Construction (NDC), until 1965 known this was adjusted upwards, with the target as EE/B &W/TWC, the initials of the three now being between 12-14 stations, producing consortia partners, a consortium which also in the region of 5000-6000MW by 1965. built Hinckley Point A in Somerset as part of A financial squeeze later that same year led the Magnox programme. Frederick Gibberd to a new planned completion date of 1966, was the consulting architect and the tender but the aim remained high. However, in the price was £55 million. The location was summer of 1960, influential voices began chosen because of its suitable geological to sound words of caution. Sir Christopher formation, able to take the weight of the Hinton, the chairman of the Central Electricity station (c.65,000 tons), proximity to the Generating Board (CEGB), co-authored a sea as a source for cooling water for the paper arguing that the existing designs of turbines and position near to a source of nuclear power stations made their electricity high demand for electricity (the South East). far more expensive than that produced by The 230-acre area that had been set aside conventional power stations. The paper also for Sizewell A was also seen as being large predicted that coal prices would rise more enough for additional power stations in 7 slowly than had previously been expected. the future. Sizewell was a fishing village 4 H.G Nelson, the chairman of English Electric consisting of a pub and a short row of also weighed in, arguing that the greater terraced cottages, with the nearest town availability of coal and oil, along with the of Leiston a mile and half inland. Leiston, ‘rapid growth in size and efficiency’ of population 4,111 in 1961, is a small conventional power stations would reduce industrial town in a largely agricultural area, the number of nuclear power stations. 5 On where local wages for unskilled workers the whole, however, faith in the concept of were about £10 a week. The main employer nuclear power remained high and, whilst in the 1960s was a small engineering works in 1960 there were just two nuclear power called Garretts. The wider region, from stations, by the end of the decade there Lowestoft to the north, Ipswich inland and would be ten in operation. Decision-making, Felixstowe to the south, was renowned for research and design of the entire programme very low wages and high unemployment was vested solely in the hands of the Atomic due to long-term changes in farming and Energy Agency (AEA), which was at the time the fishing industry. committed to the development of the Magnox type of reactor, using natural uranium with 3 Ministry of Fuel and Power, A Programme of Nuclear Power, plutonium as a by-product, graphite as a Cmnd. 9389, HMSO, 1955 moderator and carbon dioxide as a coolant. 4 The Times, 18 June 1960 6 5 Ibid The detailed design and construction of 6 For more on this see: Burn, Nuclear Power and the Energy Crisis, each reactor, based on the AEA prototype, London: MacMillan, 1978; MacKay and Thompson (eds) was carried out by a number of consortia Something in the Wind: Politics after Chernobyl, London: Pluto, 1988; Wynne, Rationality and Ritual. Participation and Exclusion consisting of private sector firms and the in Nuclear Decision-making, London: Earthscan, 2011. completed reactors were then handed over 7 Electrical Times, 2 October 1960. 6 Aerial photograph of site from Electrical Times 2nd October 1958. Source: National Archives CEGB map showing location of Sizewell site. Source: National Archives 7 STARTING WORK ON SIZEWELL A Sizewell A was built by a combination of locally recruited labour and travelling workers, many of whom were skilled with considerable experience in this type of work, who frequently moved from one large site to another in pursuit of the higher earnings that could be obtained. Pat O’Kane, from County Derry in Ireland, was just 21 when he started on Sizewell. Like many young Irishmen, he found there were few jobs back home and had been working on and off in Britain for a short period, before getting the start on Sizewell A. Pat O’Kane on scaffolding.