Interior. View of one eight steam-raising units around Reactor One.

Description Interior. View of one eight steam-raising units around Reactor One.

Date 13/9/1989

Catalogue Number B 20049 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 728464

Scope and Content One of eight steam-raising units around Reactor One, Hunterston 'A' Nuclear Power Station, North Ayrshire Hunterston 'A' nuclear power station, a magnox reactor (named after the magnesium alloy used to cover the fuel rods), was commissioned in 1955, designed 1955-7 and built 1957-64. It closed in 1990, and is being decommissioned, a process which may take up to 135 years. The reactors are housed in two glass-fronted structures with curving sides, and are surrounded by lower buildings housing further machinery and supplies. This shows a steam-raising unit, or boiler, surrounded by girders supporting the structure, and pipes which are transporting the steam it produces to the turbine hall outside. Part of the protective casing surrounding the reactor can be seen (right). Nuclear fission within the reactor's cores creates vast amounts of heat to create steam in the boilers. The glass walls around the reactors and the boilers are divided by metal glazing bars, and braced by diagonal supporting beams. From the outside of the building these create a delicate grid pattern, which is even more striking when the interior is illuminated at night. Hunterston 'A' has been selected as one of Scotland's key 20th-century Modern architectural monuments. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Medium Colour negative

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