{"id":98956,"date":"2024-08-01T18:26:24","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T08:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=54923"},"modified":"2024-08-01T18:26:24","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T08:26:24","slug":"uk-sellafield-nuclear-site-goes-electric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=98956","title":{"rendered":"UK Sellafield nuclear site goes electric"},"content":{"rendered":"

The heart of the UK nuclear reneger generation industry has just gone electric. In reality, the railway network that serves the huge Sellafield site has just taken delivery of a new battery-electric locomotive. The shunter (switcher) was supplied by British manufacturer Clayton Equipment. It\u2019s the first fully electric locomotive to be deployed at the site on the Cumbrian coast in the North West of England.<\/strong>
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Clayton, the British locomotive manufacturer, has supplied a battery electric locomotive to Sellafield, the site that handles all of the UK\u2019s nuclear fuel reprocessing operations. The site has an extensive private rail network, and a fleet of locomotives used for moving the specialist rolling stock around the facility. Sellafield was part of the pioneering civil energy generation industry and now is the centre for decommissioning redundant nuclear energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Treason to read this<\/h2>\n

Sellafield has been the emblem of the UK nuclear generation industry since the 1950s. The huge site, formerly known as Windscale, has had many uses over the years, both civil and military. It has been a contributing part of the national power generation grid for almost fifty years. The reactors went \u2018offline\u2019 in 2003. Since then, the site has been the centre for handling nuclear materials. It is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency, a non-departmental government agency, which also runs its own rail freight carrier, Direct Rail Services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The Sellafeidl site has one of the largest private rail networks in the UK. Image: \u00a9 Sellafield.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the Cold War decades, the site was shrouded in secrecy. Stories such as this could fall within the confines of the British Official Secrets Act, making reading them a potential act of treason. Fortunately, today, the site is somewhat less secretive about its activities and actively encourages public engagement<\/a>. To that end, Sellafeild\u2019s management eagerly welcomed news of its first battery-electric locomotive.<\/p>\n

Chain reaction to fast reactor<\/h2>\n

The battery electric locomotive is part of a product line pioneered by a British manufacturer with a global order book<\/a>. Clayton Equipment has been a pioneer of locomotive manufacturing in the UK for nearly a century. It was one of the first to deploy diesel locomotives in the switch away from steam traction during the modernisation of British Railways in the late 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\n

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Location of Sellafield. Image: \u00a9 OpenStreetMaps.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today, the company serves several industrial operations in the UK with a roster of zero-emissions locomotives. The 40-tonne model delivered to Sellafield is the latest in a string of low-emissions and zero-emissions initiatives for the site. \u201cWe started replacing the older fleet almost three years ago and already have two hybrid electric locos servicing the site,\u201d said Mark McSherry, railways operations manager for Sellafield. \u201cDrivers much prefer the newer machines to the older diesel models as they have increased manoeuvrability and additional comforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

From order to delivery, the new 40-tonne, fully battery-powered loco<\/a> was built in just four months by Clayton. As a fast order reactor, they may well hope for a chain reaction from Sellafield and other customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The heart of the UK nuclear reneger generation industry has just gone electric. In reality, the railway network that serves the huge Sellafield site has\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":54925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7990,12150,3460,180,12151,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-battery-electric","category-clayton-equipment","category-nuclear","category-rolling-stock","category-sellafield","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t