New cracks have been found in one of the nuclear reactors at the Hunterston B power station in North Ayrshire.
Two graphite bricks were found to be affected in the core of reactor four at the power station when the reactor was shut down in August for a planned inspection and maintenance.
EDF Energy, which operates the power station, said that the cracks were predicted to occur as the plant aged, but that the two discovered would not affect the safe operation of the reactor.
Colin Weir, Station Director at Hunterston B said:
“Every time we take the reactor out of service for planned maintenance we inspect the graphite core which is made up of around 6,000 bricks.
During the current Hunterston outage we found two bricks with a new crack which is what we predicted during Hunterston B’s lifetime as a result of extensive research and modelling. It will not affect the operation of this reactor and we also expect that a few additional cracks will occur during the next period of operation.
The small number of cracked bricks found during routine inspection is in line with our expectations, the findings have no safety implications and are well within any limits for safe operation agreed with our regulator.”
The the reactor returned to service on Sunday after EDF Energy received approval from the Office for Nuclear Regulation, and will begin resupplying electricity to the grid soon.
Hunterston B began operating in 1976 and was planned to to be closed down in 2011, but in 2007 its life was extended in 2016, and EDF Energy say that it could technically and safely operate until 2023.
