Lifetime strategy
The current preferred strategy for decommissioning Hunterston A like all UK Magnox nuclear power stations is deferred site clearance, allowing for total site clearance around 100 years after cessation of generation. It minimises risk to workers, public and the environment, minimises waste volumes, is technically straight forward and makes financial sense.
Magnox Electric Ltd is applying its knowledge and expertise to accelerate the decommissioning work plan which doesn’t preclude a reduction in the 100-year period to total site clearance.
Having successfully defuelled Hunterston’s twin reactors and despatched the irradiated fuel to Sellafield for reprocessing, we are currently midway through the care and maintenance preparations of the site’s decommissioning programme.
The decommissioning plan at Hunterston
1990-1995 Defuelling
- Removal of irradiated fuel from the station’s twin reactor vessels – completed in 1995 – and despatched to Sellafield for reprocessing
1995-2016 Care & Maintenance Preparations
- Retrieval, processing and packaging of accumulated intermediate level waste
- Construction of a purpose built store for the storage of recovered and packaged intermediate level waste
- Deplanting and demolition of buildings other than the reactor buildings
- Emptying, cleaning and demolition of the fuel storage pond and its containment building
- Installation of a mobile active effluent treatment plant
- Removal of auxilliary plant and glass cladding within the reactor buildings which will be weatherproofed and secured in readiness for the quiescent period
2017-2081 Care & Maintenance
- Site monitored for reactor conditions and security as the radioactivity inside the reactors naturally decays
- Radiological and environmental monitoring
- Regular inspection of site conditions and maintenance where necessary
- Periodic structural and civil surveys of all buildings
- Ground maintenance to ensure the site remains tidy and to prevent the spread of undergrowth
- Maintenance and emptying of the intermediate level waste store
- Transport and disposal of low level waste
- Transportation of all intermediate level waste for permanent disposal off site in line with UK strategy
2081-2090 Final Site Clearance
- Construction and subsequent demolition of a waste management facility
- Dismantling and demolition of all remaining buildings on site including the intermediate level waste store
- Treatment and packaging of all remaining waste
- Remedial work to the grounds and landscaping
- Site delicensed and made available for potential reuse
