nuclear-news

EDF plans to restart Hunterston nuclear reactors because – hey! some of the 350 cracks are only small!

Ardrossan Herald 28th Nov 2018 THE chairman of Hunterston site stakeholders group has called upon the\ power station’s Reactor 3 to remain closed as a result of the increased number of cracks found in graphite bricks. It has been revealed that over 350 cracks have now been found, with concerns being raised as to the future operation of the plant.

However, owners EDF Energy closed reactor 3 earlier this year to carry out a more in-depth investigation, and have given
assurances that the cracks are ‘much narrower’ than set out than the safety parameters set which considerably lessens any danger.

Rita Holmes, chair of the Hunterston Site Stakeholder Group, said “If safety were indeed EDF’s number one priority, then reactor three would remain shut down. “As it is EDF is seeking permission to restart an aged reactor, which despite huge efforts and high cost, failed to back up its current safety case. The Hunterston keyway root cracking was not predicted to be so progressed. “There’s a lot at stake if the experts are wrong again.”

An EDF Energy spokesperson said: “The cracking only poses a potential challenge to the entry of the control rod in an extreme and highly unlikely (1 in 10,000 year) earthquake scenario and even then we have back-up systems which include super articulated control rods (designed to bypass distortions) and nitrogen plant which could be injected within
seconds to shut-down the unit.

During the most recent inspection of Reactor 3 we examined around a quarter of the core. As expected we identified a
number of new cracks. This number exceeded the operational limit of the existing safety case but was significantly mitigated by the cracks being much narrower than modelled in the safety case; something which was reported to the local site stakeholder group in June of this year. We have also carried out similar inspections on Reactor 4 and the case for return to service for that unit is currently with the ONR for review.” The return to service dates for the units which are cur rently on the REMIT website: Reactor 3 – 21 Feb 2019 and Reactor 4 – 14 Jan 2019.
https://www.ardrossanherald.com/news/17261490.350-cracks-found-in-hunterston-reactor/

December 3, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, UK