Scottish Nuclear was formed as a precursor to the privatization

Privatization

Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...

 of the Electricity Supply Industry

Electric power distribution

File:Electricity grid simple- North America.svg|thumb|380px|right|Simplified diagram of AC electricity distribution from generation stations to consumers...

 in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 on 1 April 1990. It consisted of the nuclear

Nuclear power plant

A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...

 assets of the South of Scotland Electricity Board

South of Scotland Electricity Board

The South of Scotland Electricity Board , was formed as a result of the Electricity Reorganisation Act 1954. On 1 April 1955, the two southern Scottish Area Electricity Boards were merged into the South of Scotland Electricity Board...

. A purpose-built headquarters was built in 1992 in the new town of East Kilbride

East Kilbride

East Kilbride is a large suburban town in the South Lanarkshire council area, in the West Central Lowlands of Scotland. Designated as Scotland's first new town in 1947, it forms part of the Greater Glasgow conurbation...

.

Assets

• Hunterston A
  Hunterston A nuclear power station
  Hunterston A nuclear power station was a Magnox power station located at Hunterston in Ayrshire, Scotland, adjacent to Hunterston B and is currently being decommissioned.-History:...
  
   Magnox
  Magnox
  Magnox is a now obsolete type of nuclear power reactor which was designed and is still in use in the United Kingdom, and was exported to other countries, both as a power plant, and, when operated accordingly, as a producer of plutonium for nuclear weapons...
  
   Power Station (by then shutdown)
• Hunterston B
  Hunterston B nuclear power station
  Hunterston B Power Station is a nuclear power station in North Ayrshire, Scotland. It is located about 9 km south of Largs and about 4 km north-west of West Kilbride. It is operated by EDF Energy...
  
   AGR
  Advanced gas-cooled reactor
  An advanced gas-cooled reactor is a type of nuclear reactor. These are the second generation of British gas-cooled reactors, using graphite as the neutron moderator and carbon dioxide as coolant...
  
   Power Station
• Torness
  Torness nuclear power station
  Torness nuclear power station was the last of the United Kingdom's second generation nuclear power plants to be commissioned. Construction of this facility began in 1980 for the then South of Scotland Electricity Board and it was commissioned in 1988...
  
   AGR
  Advanced gas-cooled reactor
  An advanced gas-cooled reactor is a type of nuclear reactor. These are the second generation of British gas-cooled reactors, using graphite as the neutron moderator and carbon dioxide as coolant...
  
   Power Station

Breakup

In 1996, Hunterston A was transferred to Magnox Electric and the residual company became a subsidiary of the newly formed and soon to be privatised British Energy

British Energy

British Energy was the UK's largest electricity generation company by volume, before being taken over by Électricité de France in 2009. British Energy operated eight former UK state-owned nuclear power stations and one coal fired power station....

.

See also

• Energy policy of the United Kingdom
  Energy policy of the United Kingdom
  The current energy policy of the United Kingdom is set out in the Energy White Paper of May 2007 and Low Carbon Transition Plan of July 2009, building on previous work including the 2003 Energy White Paper and the Energy Review Report in 2006...
  
  
• Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom
  Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom
  Energy use in the United Kingdom stood at 3,894.6 kilogrammes of oil equivalent per capita in 2005 compared to a world average of 1,778.0. In 2008, total energy consumed was 9.85 exajoules - around 2% of the estimated 474 EJ worldwide total...