Some 33,000m2 of the UKAEA’s Winfrith site has become the first ‘significant’ area of land and associated buildings in the UK to be released from nuclear licensing controls. Restoration of the site – which at one time had nine operational nuclear reactors – started in the early 1990s.

UKAEA is restoring the Winfrith site to free the land for unrestricted use. The eventual aim is for the Winfrith site to be used as a major science and technology centre for the region. Parts of the site have already been leased to businesses. The picture below shows one of the delicensed buildings on the Winfrith site, now home to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, part of the natural Environment Research Council.

Decommissioning activities at the site were featured on page 30 of NEI December 2002.