What is this feature at Hunterston?

[stevenwignet]

Its bugged me for many years but what is this structure used for at Hunterston?
is it something to do with the old A Station or is it part of B station?
what is it used for?
when was it built?

it looks like a mini oilrig

[phands]

I think it's where the heat exchangers from the power stations emerge. The water around there is a lot warmer than usual, and you often get basking sharks etc in the area.

Paul

[Mitchy]

The structure in the photograph is associated with what was the cooling water discharge for Hunterston ‘A’ Station. The ‘B’ Station discharge is located nearby but has no such structure associated with it. You can see some disturbance on the surface of the sea to the right of the ‘A’ station structure which is where the ‘B’ Station cooling water is discharging. The purpose of the cooling water is to pass through the turbine condenser shells which rapidly condenses the steam which has finished the cycle of driving the turbine. The condensate is then moved back through the system to be returned to steam again via the boilers which goes go back through the turbine again.

[frank quinn]

Perhaps this may assist;There were two culverts built, one towards Portencross which wasthe "Inlet Culverts" and
the other towards Fairlie end was the "outlet culverts"Cold water in--warm water out, thus the sea was warmer at the "fairlie" side. after steam generation thro'reactors to turbines warm water exuded at the structure to which you have shown in picture & marine life improved in size.
Frank

[wardog54]

The structure in the photo was the cause of the shutdown on hunterston A back in the late 70's. seawater was somehow able to back flow and cause contamination inside the reactor and the actual core rods.

I work on the contractor crew that was doing all the refurbishment on the rods from the core.

We would work sat morning to pull out 8 contaminated rods and replace then with the 8 that we spend the previous week stripping, cleaning, refurbish and painting where appropriate.

Around my last 2-3 months there we had the chance to go inside the reactor to work on the cleanup inside.

This was definatley one of my more interesting jobs for sure, ended up being there around two years.

David

[VirtualHunterston]

With regard to the structure shown in the image does anyone know if its made of wood or concrete? and what was the movable crane on the top used for?

also,
Hunterston A water feed went into the filter building that is now the training centre, you used to see all the water gushing into the open concrete structures before it eventually went to the station itself, but what method does B station use as you would expect it to also have a filter station like 'A' station did.

This is also a specific question for people in the know so will say it in code, all I need is a yes or no answer unless you want to be a bit more specif in a private message.
Does the Critical Safety Cooling Water Pipeline still exist and is it still active?