AFTER 43 years, Didcot’s iconic power station finally closes tomorrow.
The six 325ft cooling towers of Didcot ‘A’ were shut down and stopped feeding electricity to the National Grid last week.
Tomorrow decommissioning begins, although it will be several years before the towers are torn down.
About 210 staff work at Didcot ‘A’. Of those, 70 will be kept on for the nine-month decommissioning process, 40 are being given other roles with RWE npower, and 100 are being made redundant.
Staff crowded into the canteen to watch a live feed of the final switch-off from the control room last Friday.
A laser message saying ‘Powering the nation 1970-2013’ was then projected on to the towers as a final farewell.
The coal-fired site has generated power across the UK for 43 years since 1970.
RWE npower announced in September the 2,000MW site would have to close this month after opting out of an EU directive.
Didcot ‘B’ continues to operate.
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