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Hunterston B power station

Hunterston B is a nuclear power station on the west coast of Scotland.

Over its generating life Hunterston B produced 297.4TWh of zero-carbon electricity

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Enough to power all of Scotland’s homes for 31 years

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Avoiding 101.5m tonnes of CO2 emissions*

Like taking every car off Scotland's roads for more than 19 years

*when compared to direct emissions of combined cycle gas turbines | all figures rounded to the nearest hundred thousand

Decommissioning Proposals at Hunterston B

Hunterston B stopped generating electricity in January 2022 after 46 years of service. At the moment EDF is removing the used fuel from the reactors in preparation for the decommissioning of the nuclear power station.

Decommissioning will involve dismantling and demolition of plant and buildings on the Hunterston B site and will be carried out by Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS), which is part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. 

The first phase of decommissioning, the Preparations for Quiescence phase is anticipated to start at the end of defueling in 2025 (with formal handover of the site to NRS expected in 2026). This first phase will involve the removal of all buildings and plant from the site, with the exception of the reactor buildings and some adjoining structures which will be modified to create a Safestore structure. This Safestore is designed to maintain the reactor buildings in a safe state through the Quiescence phase of around 70 years. Following this, the Final Site Clearance phase will involve the removal of the reactors and debris vaults housed in the Safestore structure, making the site available for future use. Whilst future uses of the site will not be achieved for many decades, our proposals are a stepped approach to dismantling and decontamination towards an end state. This allows for safe radioactive decay, prior to Final Site Clearance.

How does the defueling process work?

After two rounds of public consultation in August/September 2022 and June/July 2023 respectively, EDF have made further progress in the development of our decommissioning proposals. 

This means we have been able to complete an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the decommissioning works. This EIA, in the form of an Environmental Statement, was submitted to the Office for Nuclear Regulation on the 1st December 2023 as part of an application for consent under the Nuclear Reactors (Environmental Impact Assessment for Decommissioning) Regulations 1999 (as amended). This application requires approval from ONR before decommissioning works can proceed at the site. 

This application will be available to view on the ONR website from 6th December 2023. Any persons wishing to make representations about the application should make them in writing to the ONR at Nuclear Liabilities Team, Office for Nuclear Regulation, Building 4, Redgrave Court, Merton Road, Bootle, L20 7HS or EIADR@onr.gov.uk by 28th March 2024 at 23:59.

The application will also be made available to view at West Kilbride Library, Halfway Street, West Kilbride KA23 9EQ between 6th December 2023 and 28th March 2024. Regular opening hours of West Kilbride library are: 

Monday and Tuesday: 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm
Thursday and Friday: 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm
Saturday: 10am to 12pm
*These opening hours are correct at the time of print and are likely to be different at holiday periods, please check the North Ayrshire Council website before visiting. 
 

About Hunterston B

  • Station Director: Joe Struthers
  • Total supply to the national grid: 965MW 
  • Reactor type: 2 Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors 
  • Coolant: Carbon dioxide gas (CO2)
  • Start of construction: 1968
  • Start of generation: 1976
  • Start of defuelling: 2022
  • People: Approximately 520 full time EDF employees plus over 250 full time contract partners

Hunterston news

Hunterston B
September 19, 2023

Defueling success as first reactor fuel free at Hunterston B in Scotland

A key milestone has been successfully met in the first phase of decommissioning the UK’s fleet of seven Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) nuclear power stations.

Graphite in nuclear power

At Hunterston B we have been conducting the most extensive investigation programme ever undertaken on the graphite core of our reactors.

Find out more about the role of graphite in our reactors, and the results of our inspections.

Hunterston B nuclear power station

Contact Hunterston

Address:
EDF Hunterston B power station
West Kilbride
Ayrshire KA23 9QX

Reception:
+44 (0)1294 826000

Media requests:
Fiona McCall
fiona.mccall@edf-energy.com 
07813 232 347

Community requests:
Nikki Thomson
nikki.thomson@edf-energy.com
+44 (0)1294 826157

Community

EDF and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority hold regular joint meetings (Site Stakeholder Group or SSG) with local people, the media, council and emergency services representatives and local politicians to maintain regular communications about the nuclear site. This meeting is independently chaired. Read the latest community report.

Safety and reporting

Our number one priority is safety. Find out about our ​​​​​​​commitment to Zero Harm.

How we generate our power

As Britain's biggest generator of zero carbon electricity(1) we generate power from wind + nuclear + solar.

Nuclear engineer on site at nuclear power station using tablet

Careers at EDF

Interested in working at EDF? Find out about our graduate programmes, apprenticeships, internships and current vacancies.