Going nuclear

Workers in blue overalls fixing metal work on the floor of a nuclear power plant.

Inside Torness Nuclear Power Plant, Scotland. © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2025.

I had the pleasure recently to visit and photograph within the Torness Nuclear Power Station, over on Scotland’s east coast. It’s always fascinating to get into such places, the camera once again acting as a passport to hidden worlds, or worlds that you at least can’t access easily.

As ever on a visit like this, for an editorial client, there were strict conditions on what I could and couldn’t photograph, and of course I’m escorted at all times, and the time allotted for photograph is quite brief. I’m not given freedom to roam nor hang aroudn waiting for the perfect light, or moment. But you get what you can, being a press photographer gives you that spirit where you shoot what you can, you make the most of your small allowance of time.

This was the second nuclear plant I’ve been inside, the other being Dounreay many, many years ago. And I’ve been on the outside of Chornobyl in Ukraine, and within the exclusion zone of Fukushima plant in Tohoku, Japan. Building a little nuclear set!

Yellow gloved hand, with blue overalls on arm, pointing at display of red alarm lights and buttons on a display panel, in a nuclear power plant.

Control and alarm panel for the each of the nuclear fuel rods of a reactor, inside Torness Nuclear Power Plant. © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2025.

Light blue grey exterior of Torness nuclear power plant, with gold panels shimmering against a leaden grey sky.

Exterior of Torness Nuclear Power Plant. © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2025.


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