Sky-high works on power tower

Hundreds of feet above the ground, workmen have a painstaking task on their hands. But thanks to their skills – and a head for heights – a giant landmark in southern Staffordshire is slowly disappearing.

The 600ft chimney at Rugeley Power Station is being dismantled brick by brick.

It would have been too dangerous to demolish the structure using explosives. So, instead workers are carrying out the job using a rig on the inside of the chimney which was erected in the 1970s.

Beth Akers, spokeswoman for International Power, who run the coal-fired station said that a replacement chimney was already in operation.

She said the redundnant structure no longer meets environmental directives from the Government.

"The work is progressing well.

"We can't say exactly how long it will take to complete the operation," she added. "We have chosen the safest way to take it down."

The station has the capacity to power roughly half a million homes and was built in 1972. It employs 146 people.

The earlier A station at Rugeley started in 1956 and opened in 1963. It was closed in 1995 and demolished the same year.

Rugeley B station uses two 500 MW generating sets, and burns 1.6 million tonnes of coal a year, producing 240,000 tonnes of ash.

House builder Barratt is building 77 homes on part of the former Rugeley A Power Station site.

Problems with a £145 million clean-up at the power station ended up costing International Power £45m in lost profits last year.

The plan was for it to be shut down for four months after work started last March to fit new equipment to reduce sulphur emissions, but problems with one of the components means the station was unable to supply any power into the National Grid until the end of September.

The new flue gas desuphurisation equipment scrubs the waste gas from burned coal to remove sulphur dioxide.