News

Hunterston ‘B’ at 30

Hunterston B was 30 years old on Monday 6th February. British Energy has announced that it will seek a ten year life extension to 2021.

Hunterston has a disastrous economic history which shows why we would be mad to revive the nuclear industry.

1. Construction began in November 1967.

2. It was only the first reactor that opened in February 1976. The second opened in March 1977.

3. The second reactor was three years late - which doesn't sound too bad by AGR standards, but a deal had been struck to provide the Invergordon Aluminium Smelter with cheap electricity, so the three year delay cost the public purse £52 million.

4. Hunterston also had to be de-rated to prevent corrosion of boiler tubes. This cost a further £13.3 million.

5. In April 1976 the Government was forced to introduce a special Bill to increase the Scottish Electricity Boards' upper limit for borrowing. [Electricity Financial Provision (Scotland) Bill 1976].

6. Hunterston B ran more or less properly for six months, then in October 1977 a "human error" allowed 1,000 gallons of sea water to flood the pressure vessel of reactor two. This cost around £36m - £8m to fix and £28m for replacement electricity.

7. Ultimately this led to the closure of the aluminium smelter in 1982 with the loss of 890 jobs. This cost the taxpayer £113m.

In spite of all this, Hunterson B was often called, in the 1970s, the best AGR in the world.

Hunterston ‘B’, SCRAM Energy Bulletin No.7 Aug/Sept 1978 (pdf, 1.2MB)

Aluminium Foiled, SCRAM Energy Bulletin No.28 Feb/Mar 1982 (pdf, 204KB)