Chapelcross
Former Magnox nuclear power station near Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, being decommissioned.
CX Tech wants a data-centre campus beside the old Chapelcross reactors, and its 1,000 MW grid request, reported in late September 2026, is a record by City AM's count. Holyrood voted in September to pause consent decisions on such campuses.
Last refreshed: 18 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Can a former nuclear site in Scotland become a 1,000 MW data-centre campus?
Timeline for Chapelcross
Became the site of a 1,000 MW campus application
Data Centres: Boom and Backlash: GB Grid opens self-build to data centresBackground
Chapelcross is a former nuclear power station about 3 km north-east of Annan, in Dumfries and Galloway in south-west Scotland. It is now the proposed setting for CX Tech's data-centre campus.
The station ran four Magnox reactors from 1959 until generation ceased in June 2004. Its four cooling towers were demolished on 20 May 2007, and the removal of fuel from the reactors was completed in February 2013. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority owns the site, and Nuclear Restoration Services carries out the decommissioning.
The site comes with an existing high-voltage connection, a 132 kV grid supply point, and the developer counts roughly 1 GW of renewable projects, consented or planned, inside a 5 km radius. The site's next use now depends on Scottish planning policy as much as on the grid.
Data centres eye the former reactor site
The decommissioned station acquired a possible successor in late September 2026, when CX Tech's 1,000 MW connection request for a campus near the site was reported as the biggest in Britain's queue, in The Week the UK government announced GB Grid. That one request equals more than 2% of The National peak demand of about 45 GW. The developer points to a 132 kV grid supply point next to the land.
Where exactly the buildings would stand is disputed: local campaigners say the plan uses agricultural fields beside Chapelcross rather than the nuclear site itself. Planning consent poses the bigger hurdle. Holyrood voted 80 to 26 in September to take no data-centre consent decisions before national guidance appears, so a quicker connection route from Westminster does not settle the site's future.
What is planned at Chapelcross?
When did Chapelcross nuclear power station close?
Where is Chapelcross?
Can the Chapelcross data centre get planning permission?
Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Updated 18 October 2026. Editorial standards.