Scottish Nuclear was formed as a precursor to the

privatisation Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

of the

electricity supply industry The electric power industry covers the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electric power to the general public and industry. The commodity sold is actually energy, not power, e.g. consumers pay for kilowatt-hours, power multip ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

on 1 April 1990. A purpose-built headquarters was built in 1992 in the new town of

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...

. It consisted of the

nuclear Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: *Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics *Nuclear space *Nuclear ...

assets of the South of Scotland Electricity Board, which were later absorbed into the 1996 founded companies - Magnox Electric and British Energy.

Assets

* Hunterston A

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 ...

Power Station (by then shut down) *

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 ...

AGR Power Station * Torness AGR Power Station

History

Background : before 1990

In the late 1980s, the 1955-founded South of Scotland Electricity Board (SSEB), was one of the two major electricity generation and transmission companies in Scotland; other being North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board (now

SSE plc SSE plc (formerly Scottish and Southern Energy plc) is a multinational energy company headquartered in Perth, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. SSE operates in the United Kingdom ...

). The SSEB generated, transmitted and distributed electricity throughout the south of Scotland, including the former regions of

Strathclyde Strathclyde ( in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde") was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government et ...

Lothian Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Scott ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

Borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...

and

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the historic counties of Dumfriesshire, Kirkc ...

and a few towns in northern England.

Scottish Nuclear : 1990-1996

On 1 April 1990, the nuclear generation assets (Hunterston A, Hunterston B and Torness Power Stations) of SSEB were vested with a new private company - Scottish Nuclear. The Chairman of the company was Sir James Hann. The remainder of the SSEB assets were privatised as

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, Nor ...

in 1991.

Breakup : 1996

In 1996, the older Magnox reactor - Hunterston A was transferred to

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 ...

- established to own and operate a proportion of the old Magnox nuclear stations of

Nuclear Electric Nuclear Electric was a nuclear power generation company in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1990 as part of the privatisation process of the UK Electricity Supply Industry. In 1996, it was amalgamated into a new company – British Energy, ...

. The assets of Magnox Electric were later combined with

BNFL British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) was a nuclear energy and fuels company owned by the UK Government. It was a manufacturer of nuclear fuel (notably MOX), ran reactors, generated and sold electricity, reprocessed and managed spent fuel (main ...

in 1998, and eventually operated and managed by US based EnergySolutions through its June 2007 acquisition of the BFNL subsidiary - Reactor Sites Management Company.BNFL sells Reactor Sites Management Company to EnergySolutions
June 2007 The remaining two advanced 'AGR' nuclear plant assets of the company were combined with the assets of Nuclear Electric; and became a part of the newly formed and soon to be privatised

British Energy British Energy was the UK's largest electricity generation company by volume, before being taken over by Électricité de France (EDF) in 2009. British Energy operated eight former UK state-owned nuclear power stations and one coal-fired power ...

(now

EDF Energy EDF Energy is a British integrated energy company, wholly owned by the French state-owned EDF (Électricité de France), with operations spanning electricity generation and the sale of natural gas and electricity to homes and businesses through ...

). Through the breakup, both the companies - Scottish Nuclear and Nuclear Electric became defunct; but is still extant through a descendant company - EDF Energy.

References