British Energy faces output delays

Source: Energy Digital

Date :23/10/2007 12:18:20

Nuclear power company British Energy faced more output problems after complications during a planned inspection at its Hartlepool site.

The issue found in a boiler closure unit at one of the two reactors at Hartlepool led the company to take the precaution of shutting down the other reactor and another of its units at Heysham, south of Morecambe.

It is the latest blow for British Energy after recent boiler problems at Hinkley Point B, Somerset and Hunterston B, Ayrshire. Shares fell 9%.

The problem found during a statutory outage at Hartlepool's first reactor relates to a wire winding. The discovery will delay the restart of the unit, which was originally scheduled for early November.

The company said: "As this issue may have implications for sister units at Hartlepool and Heysham 1, British Energy has taken a conservative decision to take two of these units out of service for assessment and inspection."

The second reactor at Heysham 1 is currently on a refuelling outage but its return to service will be delayed. British Energy said it was currently assessing when the units might return to service.

There are eight steel and concrete boiler closure units in each reactor. All are pre-stressed with nine layers of wire winding at the outer periphery. Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B returned to service in May but output is still being affected by load restrictions.

The outages at the two sites cost British Energy 2.6 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in the first quarter of the year, on top of the 9.2TWh lost in the year to March 31. The company's total output for the first quarter - covering the three months to July 1 - was 13.8 TWh.

Both Hartlepool and Heysham 1 are capable of supplying over 1.5 million homes - enough electricity to keep three cities the size of Liverpool supplied during peak loading hours. Both started power generation in 1983 and have estimated decommissioning dates of 2014.

The company, which can provide around one-fifth of the UK's power needs, runs eight nuclear power stations and one coal-fired site.

October 23 2007

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