Where are nuclear power stations located in the UK? Are they dangerous?

Deriving energy through nuclear fission is a cleaner, more efficient method of fueling the nation when compared to other fossil fuel-based alternatives.

Though it is not completely clean, nuclear energy is seen by many as a crucial way of achieving net zero emissions climate targets.

For instance, France has committed to building 14 more nuclear reactors. Atomic energy provides around 70 percent of French low cost electricity and has been a mainstay of energy production since the 1970s.

Meanwhile in the UK, it provides just 16 percent. This staggeringly low figure vividly demonstrates Britain’s reliance on older, dirtier and far more expensive energy alternatives.

This is past to the consumer and therefore, Britain has one of the highest average fuel bills in Europe.

A recent breakthrough by the UK-based JET laboratory, recently broke its own record for the amount of energy created by forcing two forms of hydrogen together.

If this can be successfully reproduced, it could provide Earth with an almost unlimited supply of low-carbon, low-radiation energy.

As the world experiences the impact of the human-made climate crisis, more emphasis on Britain’s nuclear power stations will be placed.

Where are nuclear power stations in the UK?

There are six operating nuclear power stations in the UK after the seventh, Hunterston B in North Ayrshire, Scotland, was closed and moved into defuelling after cracks in the reactor’s graphite bricks were discovered.

The remaining stations are:

Hinkley Point B – Near Bridgewater, Somerset

Hartlepool – North East, England

Heysham 1 – Lancashire, England

Heysham 2 – Lancashire, England

torness East Lothian, Scotland

Sizewell B (set to defuel by June, 2022) – Suffolk, UK

Are nuclear power stations dangerous?

The International Atomic Energy Agency, part of the United Nations, has declared nuclear power plants are among “the safest and most secure facilities in the world” and sites have to adhere to strict safety standards.

However, sites produce nuclear waste which a House of Lords paper in October 2021 called an ‘unresolved’ issue in the UK.

Waste needs to be stored and managed securely for hundreds of years to avoid disastrous consequences to the public and wildlife.

Currently, it is stored in temporary facilities on site, not designed for permanent storage.

Reportedly, the Government’s preferred solution is “geological disposal”. This means placing toxic waste deep inside a rock formation to prevent radioactivity from leaking out.

Leave a Comment