FEATURE
OUR NUCLEAR FAMILY
Iconic – Hartlepool Power Station ’ s location on the northern bank of the Tees is one of the region ’ s most recognisable industrial landmarks .
How generations of local workers have played a part in Hartlepool Power Station ’ s 40-year story of delivering lowcarbon electricity to the nation ...
Teesside ’ s skyline has long been dominated by industrial giants . The spectacular sprawl at Wilton , the bright lights of industries at North Tees and the towering works around Billingham .
Another instantly recognisable feature of our landscape is Hartlepool Power Station . This unassuming box , nestled just behind North Gare on the northern bank of the Tees , has been quietly delivering for the region , and for the nation , for more than 40 years .
In that time it has employed thousands , supported hundreds of local causes and charities and , most critically of all , it has generated a staggering amount of zerocarbon electricity , long before the world knew we needed such power . And it has all been done from a tiny footprint .
The station was designed before man set foot on the moon , during the mid-1960s , and construction got underway just as Neil Armstrong made it into space towards the end of the decade . On August 1 1983 , the first reactor was connected to the grid and the station started generating .
Since then it has produced so much electricity that it could power every one of the North-East ’ s 1.18m homes for more than
50 years . Or you could say it has met the electric needs of every Tees Valley home for more than 200 years . Every way you look at it , Hartlepool Power Station is churning out a gargantuan quantity of electricity . But that ’ s what nuclear power does . It reliably generates electricity from a small area over a long period of time .
Hartlepool Power Station is home to two nuclear reactors . In each one , atoms are split apart , generating heat . This heat is funnelled through the systems and boilers which convert it to steam . The steam is then driven through giant rotors to spin an electromagnet that goes so fast it generates electricity .
This process produces no carbon dioxide at the point of generation , just electricity , so the government classes nuclear power as a zero-carbon energy . This means the output from the station saves the nation carbon emissions . And it ’ s no small amount .
If a gas-fired power station had been used to produce this quantity of electricity , it would have emitted 90m tonnes of carbon dioxide . And those numbers are based on “ cleaner ” gas technology in use now , not the older plants which produced much more carbon dioxide .
44 | Tees Business