[eggfriedrice]

I went on a tour round Torness a couple of years ago and it's a fantastic engineering marvel to mosey around.

A few things stand out, like the old-tech ring binders and Windows 95 screensavers on CRTs. The safety focus was clear. Nothing was done without a risk assessment, and the young apprentice who was helping with our tour was given a telling off by the tour staff as he wasn't holding the handrails - as had clearly been drummed into them.

What really struck me was how many people were involved in running the plant. I don't know how it compares to similarly sized gas plants, but there were hundreds and hundreds of people employed - mostly in project management/safety roles. I wonder how it compares to how many folk are employed in renewables, we have a lot of wind power here now.

It's a shame that cracks have started to form in the reactors so the plants will be shutdown earlier than planned. It looks like tours are suspended for Covid, but go round if they open up again before shutdown!

[arethuza]

The central cylindrical space in what was the Scottish Nuclear headquarters was designed to be the same size as an AGR reactor (each AGR plant having two reactors) - which I thought was rather cool.

[caoilte]

windfarms need someone to check any migrating birds aren't near and someone to man the control room (can and is job shared with other windfarms).

So one and a tiny bit people. Plus occasional inspections i suppose.