Capenhurst
At its formation in 1971, BNFL inherited the Capenhurst Site and the massive Gaseous Diffusion Plant which was used to 'enrich' uranium, one of the processes required to make fuel for nuclear power stations. Even then research was underway into a new and much more efficient way of enriching uranium, the Centrifuge process. BNFL collaborated with Dutch and German partners in URENCO to develop centrifuge technology, and the first commercial scale centrifuge plant was opened at Capenhurst in 1976.
In 1982, the Diffusion plant ceased operation and BNFL began the task of decommissioning the plant, which was completed in May 1997. The special military enrichment plant at Capenhurst is currently inactive, given the large inventories of highly-enriched uranium [HEU] held by the UK. In 1993 the Urenco partners transferred their centrifuge enrichment businesses into a new substantial Urenco Company, based at Marlow. At Capenhurst the result was that the centrifuge plants and their operators, together with design offices, laboratories and other functions transferred. On the BNFL site this left only one major project, the decommissioning of the old Diffusion Plant together with material storage and some service work in support of Urenco.
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