Scottish Nuclear was formed as a precursor to the

privatisation Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

of the electricity supply industry in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

on 1 April 1990. A purpose-built headquarters was built in 1992 in the new town of

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a raise ...

. It consisted of the

nuclear Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: *Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics *Nuclear space * Nuclear ...

assets of the South of Scotland Electricity Board, which were later absorbed into the 1996 founded companies - Magnox Electric and British Energy.

Assets

Hunterston A Hunterston A nuclear power station is a decommissioned Magnox nuclear power station located at Hunterston in Ayrshire, Scotland, adjacent to Hunterston B. The ongoing decommissioning process is being managed by Nuclear Decommissioning Authority ...

Magnox Power Station (by then shut down) * Hunterston B AGR Power Station *

Torness Torness nuclear power station is a nuclear power station located approximately east of Edinburgh at Torness Point near Dunbar in East Lothian, Scotland. It was the last of the United Kingdom's second generation nuclear power plants to be commi ...

AGR Power Station

History

Background : before 1990

In the late 1980s, the 1955-founded South of Scotland Electricity Board (SSEB), was one of the two major electricity generation and transmission companies in Scotland; other being

North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board (1943–1990) was founded to design, construct and manage hydroelectricity projects in the Highlands of Scotland. It is regarded as one of the major achievements of Scottish politician Thomas Johnston, w ...

(now SSE plc). The SSEB generated, transmitted and distributed electricity throughout the south of Scotland, including the former regions of

Strathclyde Strathclyde ( in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde") was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government ...

Lothian Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Sco ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

, Central, Borders and

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the historic counties of Dumfriesshire, Ki ...

and a few towns in northern England.

Scottish Nuclear : 1990-1996

On 1 April 1990, the nuclear generation assets (Hunterston A, Hunterston B and Torness Power Stations) of SSEB were vested with a new private company - Scottish Nuclear. The Chairman of the company was Sir James Hann. The remainder of the SSEB assets were privatised as

Scottish Power Scottish Power is a vertically integrated energy company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It is a subsidiary of Spanish utility firm Iberdrola. ScottishPower is the distribution network operator for Central and Southern Scotland, Merseyside, No ...

in 1991.

Breakup : 1996

In 1996, the older Magnox reactor - Hunterston A was transferred to Magnox Electric - established to own and operate a proportion of the old Magnox nuclear stations of Nuclear Electric. The assets of Magnox Electric were later combined with

BNFL British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) was a nuclear power, nuclear energy and nuclear fuel, fuels company owned by the UK Government. It was a manufacturer of nuclear fuel (notably MOX), ran reactors, generated and sold electricity, reprocessed a ...

in 1998, and eventually operated and managed by US based EnergySolutions through its June 2007 acquisition of the BFNL subsidiary - Reactor Sites Management Company.BNFL sells Reactor Sites Management Company to EnergySolutions
June 2007 The remaining two advanced 'AGR' nuclear plant assets of the company were combined with the assets of Nuclear Electric; and became a part of the newly formed and soon to be privatised British Energy (now EDF Energy). Through the breakup, both the companies - Scottish Nuclear and Nuclear Electric became

defunct Defunct (no longer in use or active) may refer to: * ''Defunct'' (video game), 2014 * Zombie process or defunct process, in Unix-like operating systems See also * * :Former entities * End-of-life product * Obsolescence Obsolescence is t ...

; but is still extant through a descendant company - EDF Energy.

References

{{Scottish energy Nuclear power companies of the United Kingdom Electric power companies of Scotland Defunct companies of Scotland Defunct electric power companies of the United Kingdom Energy in Scotland Utilities of the United Kingdom Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom Energy companies established in 1990 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1990 Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 1996 Nuclear power in Scotland 1990 establishments in Scotland 1996 disestablishments in Scotland