Management of radiological safety--lessons learnt and issues arising from the decommissioning of Berkeley power station.

Berkeley Power Station was a world leader when in June 1962 it became the UK's first commercial nuclear power station to produce electricity for the National Grid. Berkeley then stood at the leading edge of nuclear technology. After 27 years of successful operation and the supply of nearly 40 billion units of electricity, Berkeley ceased generation in March 1989. Just as it was at start-up, Berkeley is continuing to lead the way as the UK's first commercial nuclear power station to be decommissioned. A three-stage decommissioning process is under way to safely dismantle the plant and eventually return the site to its original 'green field' state. Stage 1 of this process is well advanced. To set the scene, and for general interest, this paper first provides some background to the development of the decommissioning strategy and a brief summary of the progress to date. Recognising the specific interest of the reader, the paper then focuses on the radiological aspects of the work carried out, specifically the hazards, the risk assessment process and the ALARP performance. Finally, and in some detail, the paper reports on the important lessons learnt and discusses one of the issues arising.