New boiler delays for British energy

Nuclear power company British Energy faced more output problems today 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% today.

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.