Magnox North

Around the world, more than 80 nuclear reactors have either been decommissioned or are undergoing the process. The principles of decommissioning are well understood and the technology required is available today. Our company has considerable experience worldwide in the decommissioning process. The job requires skill and care and will be done while maintaining the highest levels of safety.

Money is provided each year by the NDA in order to carry out work here at Hunterston A. The NDA has overall responsibility for all the decommissioning work within the UK. Please visit the NDA website for more information www.nda.gov.uk

No, Hunterston A will not become a nuclear dump. The station will carry on storing it's own intermediate-level waste until the availability of a national repository. No high-level waste has been stored on site and none will be in the future.

Security at Hunterston A is based on the "Defence in Depth" principle which means we have numerous systems which give us backup if any one fails. For example, we have sophisticated perimeter intrusion detection equipment, CCTV and we have access control systems. These are all manned by experienced guards who are trained to a national standard. In addition to that that we also work closely with the local police and our security plans are tested through joint exercises on a regular basis.

There are two main reasons why the Hunterston A Site can not be returned to a greenfield site in the short term. The first one is that there is residual radioactivity in the plant that makes it hazardous to decommission. The second one is that there is intermediate level waste which will need to be stored on the Site until there is a UK national repository available.

Yes, we do very much care about the environment. Our primary goal is to protect people and the environment. We work hard to minimise the environmental impact of our operations across the site. We regularly engage with our stakeholders and seek the widest possible approval of how we manage our environmental responsibilities by recognising and addressing the concerns that people have.

Yes, working at Hunterston A is very safe. The Site management are committed to the protection of health and safety of all our staff, contractors, visitors and most importantly members of the local community. The Site recently achieved 77 months without an accident and we have also received recognition from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) by way of our fourth consecutive gold award.

The NDA charge us with the responsibility of managing the liability on Site on the basis of risk and hazard, so it is not always the most visible projects that happen first.

For example, the Pond Decommissioning Team is involved in a number of activities including the decontamination and disposal of the fuel skips from within the pond. The team have also just installed a new water treatment plant which will treat the pond water itself. Although these tasks are not immediately visible, they are essential steps in making sure that the overall pond decommissioning takes place in a safe and effective manner.

At Hunterston A we have approximately 200 core staff, 40 agency workers and at any one time we can have between 150 and 200 contractors.

Hunterston A does care about the local community. We have a firstclass, Socio-Economic Development Plan in place to make sure that support is carried out across all the local communities around Hunterston A.