[Music] across the land and in our deep seas an army of people is working flat out to meet our energy demands we are fundamentally splitting the atom this is the story of those at the sharp end of the power industry energy production is changing in this series we find out how it works when you are trying to achieve two thousandths of an inch on something that weighs 80 or 90 tons that's what stops the men from the boys from nuclear energy and offshore gas to biomass and harnessing the wind it's energy production on an epic scale in this episode i meet the people who love working in the nuclear age people always say that it's not rocket science working here no but it is nuclear physics this is how our power is made [Music] take a trip along the coastline of the northwest of england and there are three buildings that are impossible to miss one's the blackpool tower and the others are these two giant structures adhesion near morkham they're nuclear power stations and between them they provide enough energy to power more than four million homes heisham is the largest operating nuclear site in britain and has been powering the country for almost 40 years [Music] the two large structures are heisham 1 and hesham 2. each building contains 2 advanced gas cooled reactors and between them they pump out more than 2.3 gigawatt of energy to the national grid the uk's nuclear stations meet around 20 percent of the country's power needs and it's richard bradfield who's in charge of heating one its reactor hall is the size of a cathedral and is dedicated to splitting the atom we're just about to walk onto the top of reactor one one of our two reactors here at each of one if we look down our feet here you can see we've got the fuel 324 fuel channels if we look behind us down down that way you can see the fueling machine and that sits at the moment over reactor 2. so we're really right on top of where the nuclear reaction occurs underneath us on top of the reactor pressure vessel which generates the heat to heat the water into steam to drive the turbine to generate electricity heating one's fueling machine is vital to keeping the station going it's huge 28 meters tall and weighs 75 tons the machine removes and adds nuclear fuel to the reactor core just a small fraction of the fuel is replaced every few months it's a precise process and happens very slowly the machine has a top speed of just 19 feet a minute or a quarter of a mile an hour so we've speeded up the footage so you can see it in all its glory [Music] nuclear energy is complex but at its heart it's a process that makes heat in a controlled way it begins when millions of small uranium pellets inside fuel pins are placed in the reactor core a chain reaction takes place around the fuel pins atoms are split releasing lots of energy in the form of heat temperatures inside the core can reach more than 600 degrees celsius by using carbon dioxide gas the heat is then transferred to huge boilers to create superheated steam the steam spins turbines at 3 000 revolutions per minute powering generators to provide electricity for our homes it's pretty basic nuclear physics that humans being the people we are innovate technology and it's driven us to a position where we can safely generate nuclear power for obvious reasons the risk of radiation is taken very seriously levels are constantly monitored and it's simon gora's job to make sure strict guidelines are maintained we have electronic personal dose meters so these will record the dose that people are getting inside the reactor building but they'll also alarm if anybody goes in an area where the dose rates are higher than expected this tells me what i've got in my current month so i've had zero microwave it's a dose this month and over the course of the year 25 microsieverts which as i say is very low it's really comparable to maybe a chest x-ray or something like that on a yearly basis the average person gets about two 2 600 micro sieverts just living their everyday life that's from cosmic radiation radiation from natural sources our typical doses here to an average worker maybe 10 20 micro receivers so it's a very small amount on top of their everyday background radiation dose throughout the reactor hall there are scanners to check levels and staff are monitored again when they leave the area front measurement at the moment it is checking the front of my body and my helmet and also my arms to see that they're clean back measurement now i turn around and the monitor is checking my back and also uh the front of my hands to see they are clean as well one no contamination as expected perfectly clean [Music] hisham isn't the only major nuclear facility in the northwest of england just over 30 miles away on the outskirts of preston is the springfield's nuclear fuel site they've been working with radioactive material here since the 1940s it was once a government facility now it's owned by the global nuclear company westinghouse this is where hesham's nuclear fuel is made uranium dioxide is baked into thumbnail sized pellets which are inserted into steel pins these go inside a graphite sleeve which will be placed in the nuclear reactor it's a highly automated process but still relies on the human touch [Music] and if you visit here there's one thing that's hard to ignore [Music] this constant beeping means the radiation monitoring system is functioning it's a key safety feature and for foreman peter waldron who's worked here for 14 years it's a noise he's just got used to i only ever notice it when people mention it now to be honest if i remember talking to anybody over the phone that had never been here what's that noise i said oh it's just that's just our our beep bop that just keeps us safe uranium fuel pellets are tiny but can create a huge amount of energy each one is the equivalent of burning one and a half tons of coal 64 of them are placed inside a fuel pin they'll stay in the nuclear reactor for seven years and for springfield's david shaw that adds up to a lot of power out of the agr facility last year we produced the equivalent of 12 and a half million tons of coal so that's coal that we've not burnt for energy and nuclear energy provides reliable safe fuel contributing to the uk's target of net zero and that's something we're very proud of here at springfields in this factory precision is everything people always say that it's not rocket science working here no but it is nuclear physics we are constantly um checking the quality of the product um there are some parts where you're allowed a certain leeway as to as to what sort of things you can have but there are other parts where you you've got to go down to a thou of an inch so if there's a scratch that's too though which we can measure we've got to scrap that part we can't use it i do take pride in the fact that they have never had they've never found a defect part in a nuclear reactor that has been made in this factory ever as well as a huge sense of pride amongst those who work in the nuclear industry there's also a little bit of friendly rivalry hisham is the only place in britain with two nuclear power stations each has around 500 permanent staff so time to catch up with their station directors richard bradfield and mark lees so richard you're in charge of heating one mark heating two is your pride and joy which is the best power station it's a pretty easy one to answer isn't it it's got to be heating one hasn't it mark no you've got that answer completely wrong richard and you know it go on and and for why it's clearly he jumped too i think we're both in a pretty privileged position we both worked at both power stations so uh if you ask maybe some of the other 500 you'll get a slightly different opinion 500 here each and two or the 500 over there ishmael and it's really a nice killer because the staff are rightly proud of what they do so they put their heart and soul to the work all the time and it's right that they think their station's the best station and that's great when it comes to bragging rights heating 1 is the oldest started as a hole in the ground in 1970 and started generating electricity in 1983. i think i'm going to give you that one right shelter because we didn't start until 1988 producing power but he sham2 is slightly more powerful we can produce a 1320 megawatts of power now that's that's how much we can produce but last year we produced more than 10 terawatt hours which is the third highest ever amount of power produced in a nuclear power station in the uk adhesion 2 staff are about to be put through their paces a huge maintenance program called an outage is about to start it's a statutory requirement a chance to make sure everything is in tip-top condition it's been 18 months in the planning and it'll involve turning off one of the two reactors for eight weeks the outage gives engineers access to parts of the power station they normally can't get to when the reactor is working we have two reactors on site here at heisham 2 and every three years we completely shut down the reactors and the turbine and we do some really detailed and invasive inspections just to check everything's performing exactly as it should be there's usually around 15 000 separate tasks that we do during each outage it's absolutely huge undertaking and we really have to take the time and make sure we get it right to keep everyone safe and make sure the plant remains as reliable as we need it to power all these homes so it's a bit like stripping back the engine of a car engineers absolutely love the outage time because when the plant's up and running we're very much in monitoring mode and checking that everything's working okay but during that edge we can get under the skin and we can see exactly what's happening with the equipment now i'm an engineer to training and i just love that edge because i love to see how my equipment's operating and all my engineers are just the same it's fascinating they think it's brilliant it's just a great time to be involved in the industry so how do you safely turn off a nuclear reactor each power station adhesion has a control room simulator where that scenario is played out this is an exact replica of helium 2's nerve center and it's where i'll find out what a complex job it can be so one of the most common scenarios that we do practice which with near enough every exercise that we do is we'll be practicing putting the reactor in a safe state so we have to shut down right shutting the whole reactor down that's right yeah rob piercy is an experienced control room operator who's going to guide me through the complicated process we'll shut down from an up here and we do it with a big red one okay and you're going to let me you know let me do it and it's this big red button here but before you do okay sorry okay yep you'd have to run it by the supervisor so you need to get consent from jonathan that you're about to press the right button at the right time so you'd say to jonathan jonathan i'm about to trip react seven okay jonathan i'm about to trip react to seven you're gonna trip react to seven carry on okay so i'm just gonna lift this up just push it that's it oh i couldn't realize the alarms were going to get off i know yeah so there's quite a lot happens in the first five minutes of a reactor trip there's so many different flashes from so many different places there's a strict protocol everything has to be turned off in the right order i'm really surprised that you're not ringing people and pressing lots of buttons and turning lots of knobs you've just got a binder out yeah so that's exactly why we practice it on the simulator so in this safe environment we can practice this react trip over and over again so when we're faced with this upstairs in the real world then we're a lot calmer and we know what sort of situation that we find ourselves in so if i were to put my application in do you reckon i could do the training uh 18 months might be a stretch but maybe two years there was a bit of hesitation there wasn't there [Music] britain's relationship with nuclear energy goes back almost 70 years back then the country was leading the charge into a new atomic age it is with pride that i now open calder hall britain's first atomic power station [Music] calder hall which was built at sellafield had a dual role it provided power for the nation and plutonium for the military and soon power stations with magnox reactors were installed around the uk [Music] but the industry had a troubled start a fire at windscale in cumbria in 1957 was britain's worst nuclear accident and the long-term storage of radioactive nuclear waste remains an issue plans for nuclear power adhesion were drawn up in the 1960s with new gas cooled reactors at its core the technology is so advanced so complicated so beautiful so careful that you can understand why those involved in nuclear engineering become so enthusiastic building work straddled two decades and involved thousands of workers it was a massive jobs boost for this part of the northwest of england engineers are now loading the first charge of fuel into reactor one this is done using one of the reactor hall cranes to lift the fuel elements the operation is the prelude to raising power later this year once state-owned both are now run by the french company edf [Music] like the rest of the country's nuclear stations heisham is a critical national asset it's guarded by officers from the civil nuclear constabulary and it's their brief to deter any threats this looks like a lot of kit it weighs about 30 kilos once it's all on it's like a workout then wearing it you kind of get used to it after a while so talk me through it what's on here so routinely we carry the uh the rifle yeah on top of that with another firearm we carry the personal protection weapon and then we'll carry the other things that you recognize as in the taser the cs gas and the baton as well as all the ammunition that goes with it which are all less lethal options and should we need to resolve a situation via the least um intrusive measure you go for those first yes there's regular training to keep officers on their toes with an increased emphasis on counter-terrorism unfortunately it's the modern day and age of threat we've got and also what we're protecting the importance of the nuclear power to the country requires this standard of level to protect it armed officers like sergeant rob jones and pc darren adams are on site 24 7 every day of the year seeing a full on police force based on this site it's a huge deterrent to anyone looking to gain access to this facility also also offers the site workforce and reassurance when they're going about the daily business and that's that goes the same for the local community as well what did you do before how did you find yourself in these jobs before i did this i served in the royal navy and then before i did that was a holiday rep so slightly a bit different from when it started yeah what about you rob i was a vehicle refinisher so i was carrying a spray gun and then obviously i've changed a complete change of career and carried a live one britain's nuclear cops don't just limit themselves to power stations their jurisdiction extends five kilometers from the site they often help local police and attend major terrorist incidents across the country but a key part in keeping hisham safe is working with the community sometimes our greatest form of intelligence because they're here more than we because it's the area they live in quite often we are flagged down as we drive around like we are now and members of public will say something they've seen that stands out or something they're not happy with so it's not just what we see it's also what we're told back at westinghouse's springfield's fuel facility near preston they're preparing to dispatch another nuclear consignment and it's alan marshall's job to make sure it leaves the factory safely and alan takes his job very seriously a forklift driver you take responsibility of your truck and make sure it's in full correct working order so i've done the windows i'm happy i'm good to go on that basis i'm going to get rid of basil thank you alan's worked at springfield for 34 years and has been loading fuel for the last 15. beautiful there it goes in this little slot happy days [Music] we don't like rally driving in forklift trucks they're not the most forgiving of the vehicles definitely nothing of that nature speed in a forklift truck is your enemy full stop everything needs to be done in a nice controlled slow steady manner and with this particular cargo that's exactly how we approach it it's a very niche bespoke product and it's got a good value to it and i'm not obliged to tell you the value of it and quite truthfully it's on a need to know basis and they deem that i don't need to know so that's fine it it may look just like any box but it's not just any old box it's a specific box for a specific product and it goes on to that trailer which is fully designed for that box there are checks that the right fuel is going to the right place all of those have got to be put to bed properly so everything's got to be done in accordance to the transport regs that's the transport department once they're happy and they're all done and dusted all locked up picked up and lifted and shifted wrapped and strapped lifted and shifted as i'd like to say and with the paperwork sorted another cargo heads off to keep britain's lights on [Music] back on the lancashire coast heating 2's outage is about to start [Music] and the control room is a hive of activity years of training is about to come into play as a 1 million horsepower reactor is turned off this is the first time cameras have been allowed to see this moment adhesion and the atmosphere is super calm given what's at stake with the press of a button control rods are inserted into the reactor stopping the nuclear chain reaction the temperature at its core rapidly drops and excess steam is vented away with one reactor and its turbine now out of action a small army of engineers can get to work the outage is underway but normal life continues adhesion 2. chemist beth thomas is monitoring the water that's used in the boilers in the reactor hall it comes from the regular water supply but it's further purified adhesion we're testing for really really low levels of anions and compounds so we're looking for parts per trillion so one one tiny part in a trillion year of um of species in the water and we're controlling our feed water to really really tight uh specification to make sure that our water is super pure when it goes in and really good for our boilers hundreds of thousands of samples are tested every year we make sure that it's within really tight specification for things like ph um and oxygen and so that we're protecting the metal within within the boilers for the lifetime of them around 17 percent of edf's nuclear staff are female and beth was inspired by her dad martin who's clocked up more than 30 years at hesham too she always enjoyed tinkering about with things fixing things i always thought you know she would be good in some sort of industry like this where she could use her brain to make things better and inspire people amazing really isn't it over 35 years ago with this so martin arranged a power station visit for eight-year-old beth and her sister that took them to the very heart of the nuclear process the safety engineer gave them a little hard attitude and uh i took them up on the power cap which is was finished so they were actually stood on a live reactor i just remember thinking like how can how can i be stood here on the top of a nuclear reactor with all of that horsepower and 660 megawatts underneath me but i have you can't it's silent it was just it was fascinating to me really and that sort of set me off on this um trajectory and mission you must be very proud then i am proud yeah very very proud you know she's done better than i have i don't think she's finished yet so we'll have to wait and see [Music] he's um two's outage has been a massive undertaking a thousand extra staff have been brought in to overhaul one of its reactors and turbine it's been well planned but seven weeks in something happens that no one had predicted in his televised address boris johnson said the country was facing a moment of national emergency and sweeping new restrictions on people's movements have come into force around the uk as the government tries to halt the spread of the coronavirus the measures i urge you at this moment of national emergency to stay at home protect our nhs and save lives with britain in lockdown it's uncharted territory for the staff working on the outage the company had a a procedure a process for for dealing with pandemics unfortunately that process didn't really consider a pandemic and an outage at the same time andy pyle is the outage manager it's been a tough balancing act with social distancing self-isolation and nuclear safety to look after it's required us to think a little bit on our feet i guess the first uh thing is that the power station workers have all been given critical worker status because of our importance to national infrastructure and for station boss mark lee's it's key that heating plays its part in powering britain we have one unit offline for the outage but we have another unit at full load supplying electricity to the country now we fully appreciate that we are not as much in the front line as some of the doctors and nurses that really helping the country through this but all the staff have had this real desire and commitment to provide the low carbon electricity that we do we provide for those who are absolutely on the front line of handling this coronavirus pandemic 81 days after it started and with around 30 million pounds spent on maintenance and improvements heisham 2's outage is over and the reactor is back online and connected to the grid it's been a momentous episode in the history of nuclear power on the site and there are big changes on the horizon both power stations are nearing the end of their life heating 1 is due to close in 2024 heisham 2 will cease operations in 2030. decommissioning will take decades this nuclear story is far from over the nuclear industry i personally think still got a fantastic era ahead of it we're obviously building uh the new plant at hinckley point c and there's quite a number of other projects still being talked about in the uk the electricity industry is so different now than when i started 30 years ago and it'll continue to change and i think nuclear's got a really strong part in that as time moves forward [Music] you