en.Wedoany.com Reported - The ownership of the UK's Hunterston B nuclear power station has been formally transferred from EDF (Électricité de France) to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), making it the country's first Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) station to be transferred to government ownership.

The decommissioning of the station will be managed by Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS), a subsidiary of the NDA, alongside the decommissioning of the adjacent Hunterston A site. This marks the official transition of the Hunterston B nuclear power station from operational status into the decommissioning process.

The station comprises two 490 MWe Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors, which commenced operation in 1976 and 1977 respectively. After 45 years of operation, they were shut down in November 2021 and January 2022. In April 2023, it became the first AGR station in the UK to have all its spent fuel removed. Following this ownership transfer, decommissioning funding will come from the dedicated "Nuclear Liabilities Fund," which has accumulated reserves of approximately £20.7 billion since its establishment in 1996, providing financial support for the decommissioning of the UK's existing nuclear power stations.

Under a new agreement reached between the UK government and EDF in June 2021, EDF will accelerate the safe removal of fuel after reactor shutdowns, followed by the gradual transfer of station ownership to the NDA. In addition to Hunterston B, the ownership of the Hinkley Point B nuclear power station is also planned to be transferred within 2026.

Currently, four AGR nuclear power stations remain operational in the UK and are expected to be shut down and enter decommissioning procedures successively before the end of this decade. The optimization of this agreement aims to safely and efficiently advance the decommissioning process for the entire AGR fleet.

This article is compiled by Wedoany. All AI citations must indicate the source as "Wedoany". If there is any infringement or other issues, please notify us promptly, and we will modify or delete it accordingly. Email: news@wedoany.com