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23 October 2007 - Yesterday saw British Energy close down two of its ageing nuclear reactors and delay the restart of two more because of boiler problems. The closure affects about a quarter of British Energy's nuclear-generated output.
British Energy said that, during a planned inspection of its Hartlepool Reactor 1, a problem was discovered with wire winding around the boiler closure unit.
Furthermore, this finding could have implications for sister units at Hartlepool and Heysham 1, so British Energy took the conservative decision to take Hartlepool Reactor 2 and Heysham 1 Reactor 1 out of service for assessment and inspection.
The planned restart of the Hartlepool Reactor 1 in November, following a routine outage, will be delayed, as will the restart of Heysham 1 Reactor 2, which had been taken off-line for refuelling.
British Energy said it would take at least a week for engineers to evaluate the situation and gave no guidance on when the four reactors might start generating electricity again. If the outages persist, the company will have to buy power in the wholesale market to meet supply commitments.
This latest reactor shutdown comes as British Energy is cranking up output at its Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B power stations, both of which were shut down in October 2006 when cracks were found in boiler tubes. They are currently operating at only 60 per cent capacity.
According to a report in the Financial Times, analysts are saying that for each week the four reactors are out of action 0.4 TWh would be knocked off British Energy's expected annual output of 55 TWh.
One analyst is reported as saying that this was a reminder that advanced gas-cooled reactor technology, favoured by the British nuclear industry during the 1970s and used at Hartlepool and Heysham, was less reliable than conventional pressurized water reactor technology used elsewhere in the world.
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