Hunterston A nuclear power station
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Hunterston A nuclear power station is a decommissioned
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 n ...
nuclear power station A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a generator that produces elec ...
located at
Hunterston Hunterston, by the Firth of Clyde, is a coastal area in Ayrshire, Scotland. It is the seat and estate of the Hunter family. As an area of flat land adjacent to deep natural water, it has been the site of considerable actual and proposed industria ...
in
Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...
, Scotland, adjacent to
Hunterston B 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 ...
. 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 Simon Carves Engineering Ltd. is an engineering company headquartered in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1878 by Henry Simon and is a subsidiary of Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding. History Simon Carves was founded in 1878 by Henry Sim ...
, began in 1957 and the facility was opened by
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 l ...
on 22 September 1964. Hunterston A had two
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 n ...
reactors capable of generating 180
MWe The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Watt ...
each. The reactors were supplied by GEC and the turbines by C.A. Parsons & Company. The main civil engineering contractor was
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 generati ...
. The
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 n ...
reactors used natural
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 weak ...
fuel (in magnox alloy 'cans') within a
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 ...
core, and were cooled by
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 transpar ...
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 reactor. An outer building, mainly of glass, provided weather protection. The six 60MW generators were located in an adjoining turbine hall. The Hunterston A reactor design was unique in that each was raised up to a height of over to enable refuelling to take place from underneath. This meant that gravity assisted the process of used fuel removal, and avoided the need for lifting machinery to be inserted into the active core for on-load refuelling. In later years of operation, the reactors were derated to 150
MWe The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Watt ...
each. This was to slow the corrosion of steel components which, at the original higher temperatures, could have compromised reactor life. The construction of
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 in ...
, a
pumped-storage hydroelectric 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 ...
dam and power station, was linked to that of Hunterston A, to store its surplus night-time generated electricity.


Shutdown and decommissioning

Hunterston A closed in 1990, with Reactor 2 shutting down on 31 December 1989 and Reactor 1 on 31 March 1990, immediately prior to the splitting of SSEB into
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 ...
and
Scottish Nuclear Scottish Nuclear was formed as a precursor to the privatisation of the electricity supply industry in Scotland on 1 April 1990. A purpose-built headquarters was built in 1992 in the new town of East Kilbride. It consisted of the nuclear assets ...
. The ongoing decommissioning process is being managed by
NDA NDA may stand for: Military * National Defence Academy (India), a military academy in India * National Defence Act, legislation for organizing and funding Canada's military * National Defense Academy of Japan, a military academy in Japan * Nig ...
subsidiary Magnox Ltd. Defuelling, removal of most buildings and a care and maintenance phase is planned until 2072. Demolition of reactor buildings and final site clearance is planned for 2072 to 2080


Ownership

From construction to closure in March 1990, the power station was owned and operated by
South of Scotland Electricity Board The South of Scotland Electricity Board (SSEB) generated, transmitted and distributed electricity throughout the south of Scotland, including the former regions of Strathclyde, Lothian, Fife, Central, Borders and Dumfries and Galloway and a few t ...
. As part of the privatisation of the Scottish electricity generators, Hunterston A was transferred, with the adjacent
Hunterston B 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 ...
, to the new state owned company
Scottish Nuclear Scottish Nuclear was formed as a precursor to the privatisation of the electricity supply industry in Scotland on 1 April 1990. A purpose-built headquarters was built in 1992 in the new town of East Kilbride. It consisted of the nuclear assets ...
. In 1996, upon privatisation of the UK nuclear industry, the site was transferred, this time on its own to the state-owned
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 na ...
. In April 2005, the NDA took over ownership and placed the site with its Site Licence company, Magnox North Ltd, which later became Magnox Ltd.


See also

*
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 ...


References


External links


Hunterston A Website - History from its build to DecommissioningHunterston A Site

Virtual Hunterston - Websites all about Hunterston

The South of Scotland Electricity Board Station
Nuclear Engineering International wall chart, February 1957 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunterston A Nuclear Power Station Former nuclear power stations in Scotland Nuclear power stations with closed reactors