Nuclear power stations up for heritage status

ONCE they were just blots on the landscape but now Scotland’s nuclear power stations could be designated for preservation as national monuments.

Historic Scotland, the body charged with preserving the nation’s heritage, says that it wants to grant listed building status to Dounreay power station in Caithness, Chapelcross in Dumfriesshire and Hunterston B in Ayrshire.

South of the border, English Heritage is considering classifying some of the earliest and most historic nuclear facilities because many are reaching the end of their lives and face imminent demolition.

It could lead to buildings that have been at the heart of some of Britain’s most controversial planning decisions being preserved in perpetuity.

Plans to strip out the plant at Dounreay are being prepared by the owner, the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), in consultation with Historic Scotland, with a view to preserving its striking dome.

“We recognise the special importance of Dounreay and its role in Scottish history,” said a spokesman for Historic Scotland. “The unique circumstances surrounding the building must be taken into account and we will continue to have constructive talks with UKAEA and Highland council about the best way forward.”

Britain has 14 nuclear power stations on 11 sites, which generate a fifth of our electricity. The oldest date from the mid-1960s, the most recent — Sizewell B — from the mid-1990s. Six stations have been shut down and are being decommissioned, including Calder Hall, near the Sellafield site in Cumbria. It was the world’s first industrial scale nuclear power station when the Queen opened it in 1956.

Proposals to preserve the power stations were partly inspired by a French project which saw Chinon A, a decommissioned nuclear power station in the Loire valley, turned into a museum. The public can view the radioactive reactor core, which has been covered in steel and cement for safety.

However, the cost of maintaining the dome at Dounreay has emerged as a potential stumbling block to its preservation. It costs £150,000 to paint the dome every two years.

Miles Glendinning, the director for the Scottish centre for conservation at Edinburgh College of Art, said: “One of the special things about Dounreay was that it was part of an ambitious development programme for the north of Scotland. It could be seen to have a retro architectural appeal, but its real significance is as a monument to social progress. The site should be seen as a memory landscape.”

Environmentalists also welcomed the move. “We need to be reminded of the huge amounts of money they wasted and the radioactive legacy they left us,” said Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth. “We should preserve these buildings as a monument to all that stupidity.”