It was another one of those errr, 'special' moments.
Lying perfectly still, flat on my face under a pipe-set in 2 inches of freezing cold filthy water, while the owner of some high-vised legs I could see though the steam whistling out a nearby dumpvalve inspected the pipes above my head. 10 seconds ago I had been having a nice wee in a bush feeling rather pleased at how the three of us had managed to non-destructively enter and stroll around a live 2GW powerstation without being clocked, now, I was getting an absolute soaking from head to toe from the puddle i'd had to dive in to avoid being seen by the nightshift.
I was a bit worried, but to say I was absolutely bricking it would actually be an overestimation. In fact, this absurd predicament the three of us were now caught up in (and through some outrageous good luck seemed to be getting away with) felt disconcertingly normal. It's a fucking good job this was the last on the list, as while I think we've gotten quite good at sneaking into some of the most secure civilian facilities in the UK bar prisons, being comfortable with being a stray fart from rumbled in a live UK powerstation is not a place you really want to be if you care for your arrest tally.
This is the final stop on our little project to sneak into all the Large Combustion Plant Directive opt-outs, a weird little self-styled journey me and jobs embarked on about 18 months ago after sneaking into Didcot A before they took it to bits. Managing to beat such an impossibly difficult problem was extremely addictive, and we wanted more, and in the following months of 2014 we ticked off Fawley, Ironbridge B, Grain, Littlebrook D, Tilbury B, Kingsnorth and Cockenzie (which we were unfortunately a bit late for). I wanted to finish it before the year was out, and happily did so. God knows what I'm going to have to keep me occupied this year..
Anyway, Ferrybridge is on the LCPD list, but it's not got a close date as they're making it multifuel. They've switched off units 1 and 2, which is where we figured we could enter and have more than a gnats bollock of a chance of making into the turbine hall while the thing was still running and not be the cause a terror alert and helicopter dispatch.
Live powerstations are extremely stressful places to be and this was no exception (so the photos are a little sparse). Every time you poke your head from round a pipe, an access road or corner, you could be face to face with a worker who could call to initiate a plant shutdown, evacuation and immediate armed response.
....Nahhh, me neither.
But, we got away with it, and being in that hall with all that racket, and those remaining two units powering through at half a GW each, was pretty fucking special.
We also managed a quick poke around the multifuel site that's being built, but it was cut short by nearly interrupting a hi-vis fag break and we had to make very silent but el rapido tracks.
Doctors orders, full house, number 9
bingo.
Lying perfectly still, flat on my face under a pipe-set in 2 inches of freezing cold filthy water, while the owner of some high-vised legs I could see though the steam whistling out a nearby dumpvalve inspected the pipes above my head. 10 seconds ago I had been having a nice wee in a bush feeling rather pleased at how the three of us had managed to non-destructively enter and stroll around a live 2GW powerstation without being clocked, now, I was getting an absolute soaking from head to toe from the puddle i'd had to dive in to avoid being seen by the nightshift.
I was a bit worried, but to say I was absolutely bricking it would actually be an overestimation. In fact, this absurd predicament the three of us were now caught up in (and through some outrageous good luck seemed to be getting away with) felt disconcertingly normal. It's a fucking good job this was the last on the list, as while I think we've gotten quite good at sneaking into some of the most secure civilian facilities in the UK bar prisons, being comfortable with being a stray fart from rumbled in a live UK powerstation is not a place you really want to be if you care for your arrest tally.
This is the final stop on our little project to sneak into all the Large Combustion Plant Directive opt-outs, a weird little self-styled journey me and jobs embarked on about 18 months ago after sneaking into Didcot A before they took it to bits. Managing to beat such an impossibly difficult problem was extremely addictive, and we wanted more, and in the following months of 2014 we ticked off Fawley, Ironbridge B, Grain, Littlebrook D, Tilbury B, Kingsnorth and Cockenzie (which we were unfortunately a bit late for). I wanted to finish it before the year was out, and happily did so. God knows what I'm going to have to keep me occupied this year..
Anyway, Ferrybridge is on the LCPD list, but it's not got a close date as they're making it multifuel. They've switched off units 1 and 2, which is where we figured we could enter and have more than a gnats bollock of a chance of making into the turbine hall while the thing was still running and not be the cause a terror alert and helicopter dispatch.
Live powerstations are extremely stressful places to be and this was no exception (so the photos are a little sparse). Every time you poke your head from round a pipe, an access road or corner, you could be face to face with a worker who could call to initiate a plant shutdown, evacuation and immediate armed response.
....Nahhh, me neither.
But, we got away with it, and being in that hall with all that racket, and those remaining two units powering through at half a GW each, was pretty fucking special.
We also managed a quick poke around the multifuel site that's being built, but it was cut short by nearly interrupting a hi-vis fag break and we had to make very silent but el rapido tracks.
Doctors orders, full house, number 9
bingo.
kudos on succeeding
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