FOR more than 40 years, Torness Power Station has been a permanent fixture of the Dunbar and East Lothian landscape.
Power has been generated from the site since 1988, with hundreds and hundreds of people working there.
But that will all change in under five years’ time, as the power plant is due to stop generating by the end of March 2030.
However, that will not be the end of the story, with decommissioning work expected to get under way there afterwards.
A spokesperson for EDF, which manages the plant, said: “Decommissioning happens in stages.
“Removing all the spent fuel from the reactors will take about four years and will be carried out by EDF.
“The site will then transfer to Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS) to carry out deconstruction.
“It will take around 15 years to remove all the buildings from site, with the exception of the reactor building.
“It will be left in situ, in a state called 'Safestore', for around 70 years, until final site clearance.”
The decommissioning staffing structure is yet to be agreed at the power station, which currently employs about 550 full-time EDF employees, plus more than 180 full-time contract partners.
Staff consultation is yet to begin but the spokesperson added: “Every site is different but, as a rough guide, at Hunterston B, the number of EDF staff being transferred to NRS is about 250, which is around half the generation headcount.
“This has been a managed reduction which has been taking place over a number of years and has largely been accommodated through redeployment, retirement and voluntary redundancy.
“At Hunterston B, so far, there have been no compulsory redundancies.
“During defueling, we will go through formal consultation with staff to see who wants to stay at site and who would like to leave.
“Decommissioning offers lots of new opportunities, but we have found at other sites that not everyone who works at a site during generation wants to stay and be part of deconstruction.
“Those who do want to stay and secure a role in the decommissioning structure will transfer over to NRS.
“That means most of the people who carry out decommissioning will be the people who worked at the site during generation.”
Councillor Donna Collins has lived in the neighbouring Lammermuir Hills since she was a youngster.
Torness has become a familiar sight to her over the past 40-plus years.
The Dunbar and East Linton ward member said: “It has been there since I was wee and I saw it getting built.
“I got dragged along to the nuclear protest when I was about four years old at Barns Ness, along the beach.
“It scared the life out of me; it was this big metal skeleton with an orange glow.
“It looked like it was on fire and it was all the big, big cranes used for pulling the infrastructure in and it just terrified me when I was a kid.
“It has just always been there and been part of my life.
“You get used to it and the only time you cannot see it is when it is foggy.
“It has just been part of my life, all my days.”
Even beyond 2030, Mrs Collins thought that its legacy would live on both in Dunbar and the surrounding area.
She said: “It has been a main source of employment for 30 to 40 years, from construction right through.
“Some of the people that came to Dunbar in construction stayed on, married locals and had families.
“It has been a core part of the community for 40 years.”
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