View from West.
B 20053
Description View from West.
Date 12/9/1989
Catalogue Number B 20053
Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images
Copies SC 728457
Scope and Content Hunterston 'A' Nuclear Power Station from the west, 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 two advanced gas cooled reactors at Hunterston 'B' went into operation in 1976 and 1977. This shows the side of one of the reactor buildings. The curving wall of glass allows a clear view of the metal steam raising tubes, or boilers which create steam from the heat generated by nuclear fission within the reactor. This is used to drive turbines (in the turbine hall, left) and generators to create electricity. The reactors stand on solid concrete bases which contrast with the delicate grids of metal behind the glass wall above. Standing 64.92m high, they rise above the low, horizontal turbine hall, maintenance, storage and administration buildings on this coastal site. Hunterston 'A' nuclear power station has been selected as one of Scotland's key 20th-century Modern architectural monuments. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.
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Attribution: © RCAHMS
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