Facts and figures
Hunterston A power station, located on a promontory of the Ayrshire coast near West Kilbride 30 miles South West of Glasgow, is a twin reactor Magnox power station now shutdown and being decommissioned. The station, Scotland's first civil nuclear generating station and, at the time of opening, the largest in operation anywhere in the world generated around 360MW of electricity during its 25 year life - enough electricity to supply 700,000 homes.
| Basics | |
| Location: | Ayrshire |
| Nearby towns/cities: | West Kilbride (2½ miles), Glasgow (30 miles) |
| Site area: | 65 hectares |
| Number of current employees: | 172 core/59 agency |
| Key dates | |
| Construction start: | 1957 |
| Construction end: | 1964 |
| Start generation: | 1964 |
| End generation: | 1990 |
| Defuelling start: | 1993 |
| Defuelling end: | 1995 |
| Care and maintenance preparations start: | 1995 |
| Care and maintenance preparations end: | 2016 |
| Plant description | |
| Reactor type: | Magnox |
| Number of reactors: | 2 |
| Number of fuel channels per reactor: | 3,284 |
| Number of fuel elements per channel: | 10 |
| Number of control rods: | 128 |
| Fuel material: | Natural uranium |
| Reactor coolant: | Carbon dioxide |
| Number of turbo generators: | 6 |
| Electrical output – design (net): | 360MW |
| Electrical output – current (net): | 300MW |
| Station lifetime output to date: | 739 TWh |
| Previous operators: | South of Scotland Electricity Board/Magnox Electric/BNFL |
| Adjacent nuclear power station: | British Energy’s Hunterston B |
| Unique facts | |
| Unlike any other Magnox power station, Hunterston A refuelled from the bottom of the reactors | |
