Hunterston B is a nuclear power station on the west coast of Scotland.
Public consultation on proposals for decommissioning Hunterston B
Hunterston B stopped generating electricity in January 2022 after 46 years of service. Over the next few years EDF will remove the used fuel from the reactors and prepare 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 Magnox, which is part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
Find out more about the decommissioning process.
Whilst future uses of the site will not be achieved for many decades, the decommissioning proposals are a stepped approach to dismantling and decontamination towards an end state, allowing for safe radioactive decay, prior to final site clearance.
These proposals for decommissioning are subject to further development. We held a public consultation from 8th August to 19th September 2022 to obtain your views on our proposed approach to decommissioning at Hunterston B. You can find out more about this on our online exhibition space.
We submitted our EIA Scoping Report to Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) setting out the proposed scope of the EIA to be undertaken for the Hunterston B decommissioning proposals in August 2022. This document has been submitted to request a scoping opinion from the ONR which will confirm the scope of the assessment required under the Nuclear Reactors (Environmental Impact Assessment for Decommissioning) Regulations 1999 (as amended). You can find the scoping report in the links below:
We will continue to develop our decommissioning proposals for Hunterston B taking into consideration feedback obtained from the public consultation and feedback from statutory consultees on the EIA Scoping Report. We will then submit an Environmental Statement to the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) under the Nuclear Reactors (Environmental Impact Assessment for Decommissioning) Regulations 1999 (as amended) which requires approval before decommissioning can proceed.
Since 1976 Hunterston B has generated low carbon electricity for 77.9 million homes
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
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
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.
Find out more about Hunterston B
Safety and reporting
Our number one priority is safety. Find out about EDF Energy's commitment to Zero Harm.
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.
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
+44 (0)1355 846281
Community requests:
Nikki Thomson
nikki.thomson@edf-energy.com
+44 (0)1294 826157
Latest news and community updates
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