DECOMMISSIONING of Hinkley Point B nuclear power station is to start after approval was given by industry regulators.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) decision comes after a public consultation and a detailed assessment by the regulator’s specialist inspectors who drew up a detailed environmental impact assessment with mitigation measures designed to prevent or reduce any significant adverse impacts on the environment.

ONR director Dan Hasted said: “After careful assessment and public consultation, we are satisfied that EDF’s decommissioning plans for Hinkley Point B include appropriate measures to protect people and the environment.

“We will continue to proportionately regulate the Hinkley Point B site throughout the decommissioning phase to ensure the licensee complies with applicable legislation to safeguard workers and the public.”

The station reached the end of its operating life and was shut down in August, 2022, after nearly 46 years of generating electricity.

It then moved into its defuelling phase and both reactors at the site have since been defueled in advance of moving into the decommissioning phase.

The nuclear site will be transferred from EDF to the Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS), a subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

NRS will decommission the site, which will involve dismantling and demolishing the plant and buildings as well site clearance and restoration.

Currently, NRS is responsible for safely decommissioning 13 sites across the country, including the first generation of nuclear and research sites.

The decommissioning could take 95 years and be carried out in three phases, starting by dismantling all buildings and plant materials except the site's safestore structure, which will be used for storage and management of ‘residential nuclear waste’.

The first phase could take until 2038, after which a 70-year period of ‘relative inactivity’ will be allowed for the stored radioactive materials to decay, before the reactor and debris vaults are dismantled and removed.