Hunterston 'A' was a Magnox nuclear power station which comprised of two 160 megawatt gas cooled reactors. The reactors used natural uranium fuel within a graphite core and were cooled by carbon dioxide gas. Each reactor consisted of more than 3000 fuel channels was enclosed within a steel pressure vessel. Eight boilers known as Steam Raising Units were located around each reactor. An outer building mainly of glass, provided weather protection. The six 60MW generators were located in an adjoining turbine hall

The Hunterston 'A' reactor design was unique in that each was raised up to a height of over 10 metres to enable refuelling to take place from underneath. This meant that gravity assisted the process of used fuel removal, and avoided the need for lifting machinery to be inserted into the active core for on-load refuelling

The Queen Mother opened the station in 1964 and at the time of opening it was the most powerful and technically advanced nuclear power station in the world and during its operational life until its closure in 1989 it was the safest nuclear power station in the world with not a single incident.

Living next to this station was good as it was such a beautiful building especially when it was lit up at night, I felt totally safe being born and brought up next to it and there was actually more radiation released from a home microwave oven then living next to a nuclear power station like Hunterston 'A'.
Since 1989 the station has been getting decommissioned which will take many years. The once glass building is slowing being covered in a protective layer so the once good looking lit building will soon be gone.

This is a modified section, for full details on 'A' Station please visit the dedicated website at:  http://power.hunterston.eu/a
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