The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has overseen the completion of defuelling Reactor 4 at Hinkley Point B power station.

EDF, which operates the site, has also announced that alternative saltmarsh locations are now being sought for Hinkley Point C following a public consultation earlier this year.

Hinkley Point B power station, situated near Bridgwater, Somerset, generated electricity from 1976 until 2022. The process of defuelling the power station is currently under way. A key milestone in this process has now been reached with Reactor 4’s defuelling.

This ONR will also oversee similar work about to begin on defuelling Reactor 3.

“Defuelling is the process of safely removing the spent nuclear fuel from the reactors, which removes the vast majority of the radioactive hazard,” said Mike Webb, the ONR’s head of operating reactors sub-division.

The fuel removed from the reactors will be transported by rail to Sellafield in Cumbria for storage.

The ONR says that once the power station...