BOSSES at Hinkley Point A nuclear power station have given their assurances to the local community that the decommissioning process will only have a small effect on people living nearby.
Station manager Andy Corrigan said the number of lorries visiting the site would more than likely decrease dramatically over the coming months, while there would be no "wholesale removal of nuclear active material".
Speaking at a consultative group meeting with councillors, emergency services and representatives from various agencies on Friday, Mr Corrigan said the main decommissioning process was unlikely to start for at least another two years.
First, all the fuel on site had to be removed and work was scheduled to start on that in the New Year.
He said: "Our primary task now is defuelling. We will be taking it out of the reactors and selling it on to Sellafield for reprocessing.
"That is something we do every day anyway, except before we would have been putting new fuel back in."
Hinkley A's owner British Nuclear Fuels announced its intention to close the station at the end of May, citing financial rather than safety reasons.
Once the defuelling programme begins, the existing 340-strong workforce will be reduced to between 250 and 200.
Mr Corrigan said a management team was working closely with trade unions to ensure workers were offered relocation and voluntary redundancy packages wherever possible.
However, where some jobs would be lost, others would be created as construction workers would be employed to help with the decommissioning process.
They in turn would create business for local landladies, hotels and guest houses.
He explained that vehicles used for defuelling and decommissioning would simply be replacing the daily operational traffic which currently travelled to the station, and said all radioactive materials would be cleaned on-site.
He added: "We ensure to maintain the highest standards on site. Our mission now is to defuel safely.
"There will be no huge changes to what we have been doing. It will not become a scrap site. That is not the way the nuclear industry operates."
The site will eventually be returned to green field and retained under the ownership of British Nuclear Fuels.
Mr Corrigan did not rule out the possibility of the site being re-used by the company in the future.
Hinkley Point B power station, which uses a different kind of uranium from that used at the A station, will not be affected by the decommissioning programme and is expected to keep generating electricity for at least another 15 years.