Hartlepool Power Station
| Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station | |
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Hartlepool nuclear power station
Viewed from the west in May 2008 |
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 Location of the Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station in County Durham
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| Country | England, United Kingdom |
| Location | Hartlepool |
| Coordinates | 54°38′6″N 1°10′51″W / 54.63500°N 1.18083°WCoordinates: 54°38′6″N 1°10′51″W / 54.63500°N 1.18083°W |
| Status | Operational |
| Construction began | 1969 |
| Commission date | 1 August 1983 |
| Decommission date | 2024 (expected) |
| Owner(s) |
Central Electricity Generating Board (1983–1990) Nuclear Electric (1990–1996) British Energy (1996–2009) EDF Energy (2009–present) |
| Nuclear power station | |
| Reactor type | AGR |
| Reactor supplier | National Nuclear Corporation |
| Power generation | |
| Units operational | 2 x 660 MW |
| Make and model | General Electric Company |
| Nameplate capacity | 1,320 MW |
| Annual output | 4,600 GWh |
Hartlepool power station is a nuclear power station situated on the northern bank of the mouth of the River Tees, 2.5 mi (4.0 km) south of Hartlepool in County Durham, North East England. The station has a net electrical output of 1,190 megawatts, which is 2% of Great Britain's peak electricity demand of 60 GW. Electricity is produced through the use of two advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGR). Hartlepool was only the third nuclear power station in the United Kingdom to use AGR technology. Hartlepool power station was also the first power station to be built as close to a major urban area.
Originally planned in 1967, with construction starting in 1969, the station started generating electricity in 1983, and was completed in 1985, initially being operated by the Central Electricity Generating Board. With privatisation of the UK's electric supply industry in 1990, the station has been owned by Nuclear Electric and British Energy, but is now owned and operated by EDF Energy. On 18 October 2010 the British government announced that Hartlepool was one of the eight sites it considered suitable for future nuclear power stations.
With the economic success of another advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) nuclear power station at Dungeness, the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) proposed their third AGR station in 1967 to be situated on the edge of the Durham coalfield, near the seaside resort of Seaton Carew. The proposal came at a time when the CEGB's move toward alternative fuels to coal, threatened the coal industry's existence. Despite this, and a short ministerial delay, the plans for the Seaton Carew station (which became known as Hartlepool nuclear power station) went ahead. Because the construction of the station was given the go ahead, the National Coal Board were not able to get the CEGB behind the plans for a prototype fluidised bed combustion (FBC) coal station at Grimethorpe in Yorkshire. Because of this, the UK missed out on pioneering FBC technology, before it became internationally recognised as the best way of burning coal.
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