So. Ms Markie Jr would very much like to go on a tour of a power station. Very much indeed. Sadly, our local station (Didcot) no longer offers tours (or power, FWIW).

Does anyone know of any power stations which do offer tours? Would prefer either Oxfordish South East or near Manchester / Warrington…

Not exactly a power station but Diamond light source do tours and that’s in Oxfordshire. Culham fusion project near Didcot might do also.

Probably not where or what you’re looking for but going inside the mountain to see the Ben Cruachan one is interesting.

Home

Maybe a bit far away, but worth a visit if in the area.

we went here with the scouts many years back
http://www.lakedistrictletsgo.co.uk/attractions/attractions_pages/sellafield.html

swam in the sea at the beach there too

Great thinking Dragon, thanks!

I’m now on the Diamond open day booking list – she’s too young for the Culham tours.

Thanks all for the other suggestions too, I could end up planning holidays this way – and Cruachan looks incredible!

Ace! 😀

Think drax do tours… Nuclear ones don’t appear to be available anymore

Can you still visit the Welsh one – Dinorwig

EDIT Well bugger me, looks like I spelt it correctly.

Take him camping for a weekend in North Wales and go to Dinorwig on the way home!

Cheers,
Jamie

You used to be able to go around Dinorwig pumped power station which is a bit different but quite wonderful if you like that sort of thing.

Touche!

Beaten twice!

Dinorwig and Drax both also look great – though given the distance from us it’d be Dinorwig on holiday and Drax on a visit to the inlaws!

Dungeness B nuclear in Kent is open to the public since earlier this year.

Did an enjoyable week of work experience there about 20 years ago 🙂

Wow, Dungeness B looks pretty imposing…

Thanks for your help all, much appreciated.

My old man was one of the engineers involved in the commissioning and running of Heysham 1 and 2 nuclear power stations and he took me round the station when I was a teenager. The sheer size and complexity of the station was so impressive and well worth seeing.

If you have a look on the EDF website there are contact details if you’d like to arrange a tour round.

Heysham Power Station tours

Sizewelll B do tours, went thee when I was in school.

Look for IMechE ‘near you’ events. Quite often arrange special visits and would probably be very accomodating for a keen youngster to join in.

http://nearyou.imeche.org/home

I think Dinorwig is free now.

When I was at school we went on a tour of Rugeley power station a couple of miles from cannock chase.dont know if they still do tours tho.

Dungie B restarted their tours recently. I worked on the ‘A’ site for a few years and got to do a reactor tour. An amazing experience to be stood on the pile cap just a few feet above the fuel rods.

The CCGT station at Didcot is still running, but don’t do tours.
To be honest there’s not much to see, just a load of lagged boxes making a lot of noise. The old A station last did a public tour in 1993 (if I remember correctly). My daughter who was three at the time still remembers it.

Had a tour of Rugeley B when I was at Uni.
That was ace. Walking across the grid flooring with a 200ft drop beneath was an eye opener.
As an Engineer I was in my element. The scale of it is staggering.

They did open days years ago, when A & B were both open. They were even doing helicopter flights…!!!

I guess H&S killjoys have had their way these days.

I once went to Peterhead power station…but that was 25 years ago!

doesnt hinkley?

Electric mountain in Llanberis I think is good, did it a few years ago, mountains are big when inside out

I went round Drax when I was at uni. The ammount of coal they use every day is mind bogling.

On a complete aside the company I used to work for were doing some exploratory work for Sizewell C (which may or may not ever be built) with portacabins located in the car park of the existing Sizewell power station, unfortunately it all had to be run off generators as there was no power available …….

DINORWIG is ace. Very Very impressive but I’m from a civils background so found it extra fascinating.

Hunterston do tours, as do a bunch of others:

http://www.edfenergy.com/about-us/energy-generation/nuclear-generation/nuclear-visitor-centres.shtml

If it hadn’t been demolished, I’d have happily taken you on a tour of Inverkip 😉

Hinkley A used to do tours, that was stopped and security ramped up loads after the twin towers.

Used to be by booking only and then names had to given pre-tour for security, so no just turn up and have a tour. Tour was really good and although we didn’t get to walk on the core cap, we did look down on it and all the people milling about, and the fueling equipment.

Don’t think B has ever done tours.

Lots of razor wire and armed guards though.

I toured Wylfa back in 1992. I’ve no idea if it is still possible to do so.