A TEMPORARY storage container block will be put in place at Winfrith as part of the final phases of the decommissioning the nuclear site.

Around 20 containers, some stacked on top of each other, will be used as a temporary facility for staff while decommissioning and restoration work is carried out.

The containers will be positioned to the east of the Steam Generating Heavy Water Reactor off Monterey Avenue on the south west corner of the restricted access site.

Dorset Council has agreed a planning application from Magnox Limited which also seeks changes to car parking in the area and the addition of earth bunding. It says the storage containers will be used as office space, staff welfare facilities, cycle storage and a smoking shelter while work continues to remove the last two reactor buildings.

A planning committee in January 2019 agreed facilities on the site to encase radioactive materials in concrete within special containers inside the heavy water reactor building, allowed it to 'cure' for around 28 days before being moved by road to Harwell.

Councillors heard at the time that around 100-120 boxes were expected to be filled and taken off the site in total.

The former Magnox site, established in the 1950s, is expected to be restored to heathland by 2023. The last reactor on the site ceased operation in 1995.

The entire site is surrounded by a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is close to several ancient burial mounds on Blacknoll Hill, 350 metres away.

The containers will be removed, along with other buildings, once the work is completed.