Magnox North

An overview of Hunterston A Site About us Hunterston A sits on a promontory of the Ayrshire coast near West Kilbride. The site is sheltered on the landward side by Goldenberry Hill and faces across the Firth of Clyde to the islands of Cumbrae and Arran. There are approximately 180 core staff employed at Hunterston A. The number of agency staff and contractors varies. What we do The Hunterston A team is committed to the safe and environmentally responsible decommissioning of the site. As well as safely handling the nuclear legacy, the aim of the workforce is to prepare and clear the land so that future generations may benefit from it. During 2006/07 Hunterston A Site supported its Site Stakeholder Group (SSG) in carrying out a consultation exercise with local stakeholders. Views on how the site should be used once it is cleared were collated and reviewed by the SSG. Following the consultation process the End State recommended is that: “the site should be returned to a fully de-licensed site following the point at which the NDA has finished its business at the site” Hunterston A Site is preparing for its care and maintenance phase, which involves demolishing redundant buildings and constructing or modifying existing buildings for the safe storage of waste material. The care and maintenance phase will end in 2081, when the site will be cleared and future plans for the area can be realised. History The Magnox-type nuclear power stations were the first generation of nuclear reactors in Britain. Construction of Hunterston A Site commenced in August 1957 and the first reactor went critical in September 1963. The nuclear reactors first fed power to the national grid in February 1964. The station was Scotland’s first civil nuclear generating power station and was, at the time of opening, the largest in operation in the world, with a design capacity of 360MW, enough electricity to power 700,000 homes. Throughout its 25-year operational life, Hunterston A featured at or near the top of the acclaimed World Nuclear Performance charts. Decommissioning commenced when the first Hunterston A reactor was permanently shut down in December 1989, followed by the second reactor in March 1990. Defuelling started in August 1990 and was completed in January 1995 when 99% of all radioactive waste was removed from the site. Ownership and responsibility for the site has passed through many organisations but now rests with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The Hunterson A team manage and operate all site decommissioning and clean-up activities on behalf of the NDA.