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Hunterston A Nuclear Power Station
Hunterston A nuclear power station is a decommissioned Magnox nuclear power station located at Hunterston in Ayrshire, Scotland, adjacent to Hunterston B. The ongoing decommissioning process is being managed by Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) subsidiary Magnox Ltd. History Construction of the power station, which was undertaken by a consortium of GEC and Simon Carves, began in 1957 and the facility was opened by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother on 22 September 1964. Hunterston A had two Magnox reactors capable of generating 180MWe each. The reactors were supplied by GEC and the turbines by C.A. Parsons & Company. The main civil engineering contractor was Mowlem. The Magnox reactors used natural uranium fuel (in magnox alloy 'cans') within a graphite core, and were cooled by carbon dioxide gas. Each reactor, which consisted of more than 3,000 fuel channels, was enclosed in a steel pressure vessel. Eight boilers, known as Steam Raising Units, were located around each ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnox
Magnox is a type of nuclear power/production reactor that was designed to run on natural uranium with graphite as the moderator and carbon dioxide gas as the heat exchange coolant. It belongs to the wider class of gas-cooled reactors. The name comes from the magnesium-aluminium alloy used to clad the fuel rods inside the reactor. Like most other " Generation I nuclear reactors", the Magnox was designed with the dual purpose of producing electrical power and plutonium-239 for the nascent nuclear weapons programme in Britain. The name refers specifically to the United Kingdom design but is sometimes used generically to refer to any similar reactor. As with other plutonium-producing reactors, conserving neutrons is a key element of the design. In magnox, the neutrons are moderated in large blocks of graphite. The efficiency of graphite as a moderator allows the Magnox to run using natural uranium fuel, in contrast with the more common commercial light-water reactor which re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the last Empress of India from her husband's accession 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947. After her husband died, she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II. Born into a family of British nobility, Elizabeth came to prominence in 1923 when she married the Duke of York, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. The couple and their daughters Elizabeth and Margaret embodied traditional ideas of family and public service. The Duchess undertook a variety of public engagements and became known for her consistently cheerful countenance. In 1936, Elizabeth's husband unexpectedly became king when his older brother, Edward VIII, abdicated in o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Power In Scotland
Scotland has a long history of nuclear research and electricity generation. Nuclear energy consistently accounts for 20-80% of the electric supply in Scotland depending on weather conditions for wind power generation and electricity demand. As of 2022, there is only one remaining operating nuclear power station in Scotland (Torness). The Scottish National Party (SNP) government elected in 2007 had a 'no new nuclear power strategy'. This position is at odds with UK government policy which in January 2008 announced the go-ahead for new nuclear power stations to be built across the United Kingdom. In response, Scotland's then First Minister Alex Salmond commented there was 'no chance' of new nuclear power stations being built in Scotland. The Parliament voted 63–58 to support the policy of opposing new nuclear power stations, taking advantage of a loophole which permits a veto on planning, despite lacking authority over the UK energy policy. Others support nuclear as part of a sus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnox Electric
Magnox is a type of nuclear power/production reactor that was designed to run on natural uranium with graphite as the moderator and carbon dioxide gas as the heat exchange coolant. It belongs to the wider class of gas-cooled reactors. The name comes from the magnesium-aluminium alloy used to clad the fuel rods inside the reactor. Like most other " Generation I nuclear reactors", the Magnox was designed with the dual purpose of producing electrical power and plutonium-239 for the nascent nuclear weapons programme in Britain. The name refers specifically to the United Kingdom design but is sometimes used generically to refer to any similar reactor. As with other plutonium-producing reactors, conserving neutrons is a key element of the design. In magnox, the neutrons are moderated in large blocks of graphite. The efficiency of graphite as a moderator allows the Magnox to run using natural uranium fuel, in contrast with the more common commercial light-water reactor which requ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hunterston B Nuclear Power Station
Hunterston B nuclear power station is a shut down AGR nuclear power station in North Ayrshire, Scotland. Located about south of Largs and about north-west of West Kilbride on the Firth of Clyde coast. It is currently operated by EDF Energy, and began producing electricity in 1976. The station ceased generation on 7 January 2022. On 19 May 2022, EDF announced that defueling was started on the two Hunterston B units. This process is expected to take over three years to complete, and it involves the complete emptying of all fuel channels from both reactors. This amounts to over 300 channels from each reactor, each containing 8 fuel elements. Fully loaded flasks containing the used fuel are scheduled to be dispatched from the site by rail to Sellafield at a maximum rate of three per week. Hunterston B is similar in design to sister station Hinkley Point B, which ceased operations in August 2022. History The construction of Hunterston B was undertaken by a consortium known as The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scottish Power
Scottish Power is a vertically integrated energy company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It is a subsidiary of Spanish utility firm Iberdrola. ScottishPower is the distribution network operator for Central and Southern Scotland, Merseyside, North Wales and parts of Cheshire and Shropshire. It is also the transmission owner for the south of Scotland. The company also supplies electricity and gas to homes and businesses around the United Kingdom and generates power for supply to the grid. It owned PPM Energy in the United States which has now been folded into Avangrid. Not to be confused with Scottish Power Company Limited (1909–48). History Foundation ScottishPower was formed in 1990, in preparation for the privatisation of the previously state-owned Scottish electricity industry the following year. Previously the UK government had privatised the English and Welsh electricity industry by splitting the market into 12 regional electricity companies (RECs) and two power gene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pumped-storage Hydroelectricity
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of gravitational potential energy of water, pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation. Low-cost surplus off-peak electric power is typically used to run the pumps. During periods of high electrical demand, the stored water is released through turbines to produce electric power. Although the losses of the pumping process make the plant a net consumer of energy overall, the system increases revenue by selling more electricity during periods of peak demand, when electricity prices are highest. If the upper lake collects significant rainfall or is fed by a river then the plant may be a net energy producer in the manner of a traditional hydroelectric plant. Pumped-storage hydroelectricity allows energy from intermittent sources (such as solar, wind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cruachan Power Station
The Cruachan Power Station (also known as the Cruachan Dam) is a pumped-storage hydroelectric power station in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The scheme can provide 440 MW of power and produced 705 GWh in 2009. The turbine hall is located inside Ben Cruachan, and the scheme takes water between Cruachan Reservoir to Loch Awe, a height difference of . It is one of only four pumped storage power stations in the UK, and is capable of providing a black start capability to the National Grid. Construction began in 1959 to coincide with the Hunterston A nuclear power station in Ayrshire. Cruachan uses cheap off-peak electricity generated at night to pump water to the higher reservoir, which can then be released during the day to provide power as necessary. The power station is open to visitors, and around 50,000 tourists visit it each year. Location The power station is on the A85 road, about 8 km or 5 miles west of Dalmally, on a branch of Loch Awe leading to the River Awe, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transparent to visible light but absorbs infrared radiation, acting as a greenhouse gas. It is a trace gas in Earth's atmosphere at 421 parts per million (ppm), or about 0.04% by volume (as of May 2022), having risen from pre-industrial levels of 280 ppm. Burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of these increased CO2 concentrations and also the primary cause of climate change.IPCC (2022Summary for policy makersiClimate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA Carbon dioxide is soluble in water and is found in groundwater, lakes, ice caps, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graphite
Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on large scale (300 kton/year, in 1989) for uses in pencils, lubricants, and electrodes. Under high pressures and temperatures it converts to diamond. It is a weak conductor of heat and electricity. Types and varieties Natural graphite The principal types of natural graphite, each occurring in different types of ore deposits, are * Crystalline small flakes of graphite (or flake graphite) occurs as isolated, flat, plate-like particles with hexagonal edges if unbroken. When broken the edges can be irregular or angular; * Amorphous graphite: very fine flake graphite is sometimes called amorphous; * Lump graphite (or vein graphite) occurs in fissure veins or fractures and appears as massive platy intergrowths of fibrous or acicular crystalline ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uranium
Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weakly radioactive because all isotopes of uranium are unstable; the half-lives of its naturally occurring isotopes range between 159,200 years and 4.5 billion years. The most common isotopes in natural uranium are uranium-238 (which has 146 neutrons and accounts for over 99% of uranium on Earth) and uranium-235 (which has 143 neutrons). Uranium has the highest atomic weight of the primordially occurring elements. Its density is about 70% higher than that of lead, and slightly lower than that of gold or tungsten. It occurs naturally in low concentrations of a few parts per million in soil, rock and water, and is commercially extracted from uranium-bearing minerals such as uraninite. In nature, uranium is found as uranium-238 (99. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mowlem
Mowlem was one of the largest construction and civil engineering companies in the United Kingdom. Carillion bought the firm in 2006. History The firm was founded by John Mowlem in 1822, and was continued as a partnership by successive generations of the Mowlem and Burt families, including George Burt (Britain), George Burt, and Sir John Mowlem Burt. The company was awarded a Royal Warrant of Appointment (United Kingdom), Royal Warrant in 1902 and went public on the London Stock Exchange in 1924.''Mowlem 1822–1972'' – Mowlem Public Relations brochure, 1972, p.3 During the World War II, Second World War the company was one of the contractors engaged in building the Mulberry harbour units.Hartcup, p. 94 A long-standing national contractor, Mowlem developed a network of regional contracting businesses including Rattee and Kett of Cambridge (bought in 1926); E. Thomas of the west country (bought in 1965) and the formation of a northern region based in Leeds in 1970. The network ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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