Hunterston B

About Hunterston B

Hunterston B is a nuclear power station on the west coast of Scotland. It is capable of supplying electricity to approximately 1.7 million UK homes.

Station Director: Colin Weir
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
Estimated decommissioning date: 2023
People: Approximately 520 full time EDF Energy employees plus over 250 full time contract partners

Power station - Hunterston B

Hunterston B is a nuclear power station on the west coast of Scotland. It is capable of supplying electricity to approximately 1.5 million UK homes.

Daily status

Reactor 3

Turbine Generator 7

In service

490MW

Status

Nominal full load

Next statutory outage

Feb-2019

Reactor 4

Turbine Generator 8

In service

492MW

Status

Nominal full load

Next statutory outage

Sep-2017

Notes

Nominal full load refers to the nominal maximum generation in megawatts from a reactor. The output from a reactor can fluctuate even when at full load for many reasons (e.g. plant conditions, sea water temperatures, operating limits/constraints etc). Where the output of a reactor is reduced by approximately 10% or more of its maximum, the reason for this will be shown. Generation figures are net of any imports into the station and may be negative when a unit is not generating.

Return to service dates are provided to the same accuracy as provided to National Grid under the requirements of the Grid Code and refer to the first full day of operation. Where a return to service date falls within approximately two weeks of the date of this report, the exact date will be shown. Where a return to service date is expected to fall more than two weeks into the future, the week commencing in which a reactor is due to return to service will be indicated (shown as “w/c”).

Additional information on the availability of our nuclear power stations can be found on our REMIT page.

Community

EDF Energy 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.

The next SSG meeting is on 1st December 2016.

Read our latest community report (PDF)

Read the latest letter to the Site Stakeholder Group (PDF)

Visit us

Drop into our visitor centre or book a station tour to see for yourself how we generate electricity in a nuclear power station.

Our visitor centre has an interactive exhibition where you can find out more about nuclear power generation. We also offer pre-booked tours of the power station and it's all free of charge.

Find out more about tours

Contact us

Address:
EDF Energy
Hunterston B power station
West Kilbride
Ayrshire
KA23 9QX
Reception: +44 (0)1294 826000,
Media requests: F iona McCall, +44 (0)1355 846281
Community requests: Nikki Thomson, +44 (0)1294 826157

Safety and reporting

Our number one priority is safety. Find out about EDF Energy's commitment to Zero Harm.

Find out about safety and reporting

Woman wearing safety goggles using an atom molecular model

Education

At EDF Energy we are passionate about developing the next generation of UK scientists and engineers.

Learn about our education initiatives

News

Operational update at Hunterston B

Hunterston B, 10 October 2014

A letter sent to members of the community Site Stakeholder Group (SSG) providing an update on the turbine generator, graphite core and gas circulators.
Hunterston B takes on another 6 apprentices

Hunterston B, 3 October 2014

The latest group of 6 Hunterston B power station apprentices have kicked off their careers with EDF Energy after being appointed during the summer.
Letter to local stakeholders regarding the up and coming reactor outage

Hunterston B, 29 July 2014

As a member of our community, I believe it is important to keep you updated on any developments at Hunterston B power station. I wanted to make you aware that reactor 4 will be brought offline on 1 August 2014 for its statutory outage and one of the biggest yet.