Hunterston Nuclear Power Plant

Hunterston Nuclear Power Plant
left Hunterston B, right Hunterston A
location
Coordinates	55 ° 43 '20 "  N , 4 ° 53' 35"  W Coordinates: 55 ° 43 '20 "  N , 4 ° 53' 35"  W.
Country:	United Kingdom
Data
Owner:	Hunterston A: Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Hunterston B: EDF Energy
Operator:	Hunterston A: Magnox Electric Limited Hunterston B: EDF Energy
Project start:	1955
Commercial operation:	Feb 5, 1964
Active reactors (gross):	2 (1288 MW)
Decommissioned reactors (gross):	2 (346 MW)
Was standing:	January 27, 2008
The data source of the respective entries can be found in the documentation .

The Hunterston Nuclear Power Plant is located eight kilometers south of Largs , North Ayrshire in Scotland . It consists of the two nuclear power plants Hunterston A (two Magnox reactors ) and Hunterston B (two AGR ) with a total installed capacity of 1,634  MWe . Hunterston A is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and operated by British Nuclear Fuels . Hunterston B is currently owned and operated by EDF Energy (previously British Energy ).

Hunterston A

Hunterston A

Construction of the Hunterston A plant with the two Magnox reactors Hunterston A1 and Hunterston A2 began on October 1, 1957. Both reactors had a net electrical output of 150 MWe and a gross electrical output of 173 MWe each. The Hunterston A1 reactor was synchronized with the power grid on February 5, 1964 , and went into commercial operation on the same day. The Hunterston A2 reactor was synchronized with the power grid on June 1, 1964, and went into commercial operation exactly one month later. Hunterston A2 was shut down on December 31, 1989, Hunterston A1 on March 30, 1990. Hunterston A was opened in 1964 by Queen Elizabeth . At that time it was the most powerful and technically most advanced nuclear power plant in the world. It was previously operated by British Nuclear Fuels and has now been permanently shut down by Magnox Limited . The dismantling should take 135 years. The volume of radioactive waste to be removed is 37,000 cubic meters.

Hunterston B

Hunterston B

Construction of the Hunterston B plant with EGR B1 and B2 began on November 1, 1967. The reactors each have a net output of 430 MWe and a gross output of 644 MWe. The Hunterston B1 reactor was first synchronized with the power grid on February 6, 1976 and went into commercial operation on that day. Hunterston B2 was synchronized with the grid on March 31, 1977, and went into commercial operation that same day. Hunterston B supplies electrical power to over a million households.

During a routine inspection in April 2018, significantly more cracks than expected were discovered in the graphite core of reactor B1. The operator then decided to leave the reactor switched off for six months and to carry out further investigations during this time. Hunterston B2 was also shut down in October. In November it became known that the graphite core of reactor block B1 350 was cracked; the nuclear supervisory authority stated that the "operational limit" had been reached with this damage pattern. In December 2018, the extension of the shutdown of reactor B1 until the end of April 2019 and of block B2 until the end of March 2019 was announced. In January 2019 it became known that 370 cracks in reactor B1 and 200 cracks in reactor B2 have now been counted. In order to be able to put the reactors back into operation, the limit is to be increased to 700 cracks.

In August 2020 it became known that the operator EDF had decided to bring the power plant out of operation until the end of 2021. The Office for Nuclear Regulation had previously announced that it would allow reactor 3 to restart after repairing the damage to the reactor core, which cost around £ 200 million, but only for 6 months. ONR had previously expressed "significant uncertainty" about the risk that broken graphite pieces of the reactor core could jeopardize the safe cooling of the reactor. After this period, EDF wants to apply for a further six-month operating period and then shut down the power plant.

Data of the reactor blocks

The Hunterston Nuclear Power Plant has a total of four blocks :

Reactor block	Reactor type	net power	gross power	start of building	Network synchronization	Commercial operation	Shutdown
Hunterston-A1	Magnox	150 MW	173 MW	10/01/1957	02/05/1964	02/05/1964	03/30/1990
Hunterston-A2	Magnox	150 MW	173 MW	10/01/1957	06/01/1964	07/01/1964	December 31, 1989
Hunterston-B1	EGR	430 MW	644 MW	11/01/1967	02/06/1976	02/06/1976	(Planned for 2021)
Hunterston-B2	EGR	430 MW	644 MW	11/01/1967	March 31, 1977	March 31, 1977	(Planned for 2021)

Web links

• Hunterston A
  • Magnox Limited , operator
  • Nuclear Decommissioning Authority , owner

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Power Reactor Information System of the IAEA : "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Nuclear Power Reactors" (English)
2. ↑ Hunterston 'A' Nuclear Power Station
3. ↑ Nuclear Power Plants in the UK - Scotland & Wales ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2009) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Hunterston B at British Energy ( Memento of the original from May 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ^ Cracks in nuclear reactor will hit EDF Energy with £ 120m bill . In: The Guardian , May 6, 2018. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
6. ↑ Cracks at Hunterston B nuclear reactor breach safety limits . In: Herald Scotland , November 21, 2018. Retrieved December 19, 2018
7. ↑ Over 350 cracks found in Hunterston B nuclear reactor . In BBC , November 21, 2018. Accessed December 19, 2018th
8. ↑ UPDATE 1-EDF extends outages at British nuclear plant where cracks were found . In: Reuters , December 18, 2018. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
9. ↑ https://theferret.scot/cracks-hunterston-reactors/
10. ↑ Kevin Keane: Hunterston B: Pictures show cracks in Ayrshire nuclear reactor. In: bbc.com . March 8, 2019, accessed March 11, 2019 . 
11. ^ Scottish nuclear power station to shut down early after reactor problems . In: The Guardian , August 27, 2020. Retrieved August 28, 2020.