nuclear-news

Hunterston nuclear station shut down – then comes the long cleanup

A at the stroke of midday on Friday,
January 7, the North Ayrshire Hunterston B nuclear plant will be shut down with the simple push
of a button. In the high-security control room, director Paul Forrest will
step forward and trigger the end for one of Scotland’s last nuclear power
stations.

Environmental campaigners said the final shutdown of Hunterston B
– which started producing electricity 45 years and 11 months ago – was
“inevitable”. Lang Banks, the director of WWF Scotland, said the plant
had become “increasing unreliable”, arguing that growth in renewable
energy means nuclear power is no longer required.

Mr Banks said the “repeated failure to solve the problem of hundreds of cracks in the
graphite bricks surrounding the reactor core means the closure of
Hunterston B was inevitable”. He added: “Thankfully Scotland has
massively grown its renewable power-generating capacity, which means
we’ll no longer need the electricity from this increasingly unreliable
nuclear power plant. “As the expensive and hazardous job of cleaning up
the radioactive legacy Hunterston leaves in its wake now begins, Scotland
must press on with plans to harness more clean, renewable energy.”

 STV 7th Jan 2022

January 10, 2022 Posted by Christina Macpherson | decommission reactor | Leave a comment