Part-Nuclear Power Station Proposed

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31781, 11 September 1968, Page 28

Part-Nuclear Power Station Proposed

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, September 10. A thermal power station which may eventually generate some of its power by nuclear energy is envisaged at Onehunga.

The Ministry of Works is investigating a proposal for a station near Mangere Bridge, Mr R. J. Fyfe, acting chief engineer (development) of the Electricity Department, says in a paper he will present to the Auckland air pollution panel on Thursday. This would be located in the bay east of Waikaraka Park and south of the Onehunga woollen mills. It would open the development of the whole of the “unsavoury mudflats and also the shipping canal.”

The department proposes to build the first two nuclear power stations at Kaipara and on the Firth of Thames.

Mr Fyfe says extensive reclamation would follow the building of a generator at Onehunga. Dredging would provide the biggest possible expanse 6f water at all tides in the upper reaches of the Manukau Harbour, east of Mangere Bridge. The station would draw its cooling water from the sea and discharge it through a canal west of Onehunga. The station should not create any nuisance. Instead it would relieve air pollution from existing mudflats. Aviation requirements would limit its chimney to 370 ft, but

- future aviation developments 1 could permit this restriction , to be relaxed. f “Decades hence the power s station, costing perhaps 8200 m, s would become more import- ) ant to the welfare of Auckland i than Mangere Airport,” says Mr Fyfe. s “At this stage it is reasont able to plan on the basis of i the Onehunga station’s being i oil-fired and operating at an 5 annual load factor of up to s 40 per cent. If it were oil- ’ fired, it would probably be

operated on a somewhat lower load factor than Marsden Point. “As at Marsden Point, care

would need to be taken to reduce to a minimum the sulphur released to the atmosphere."