Planned maintenance has been taking place on one of the two nuclear reactors at the Hunterston B nuclear power station in North Ayrshire. As part of routine inspections, engineers looked at the reactor’s graphite core which is made up of around 6,000 graphite bricks. This is the second graphite core inspection EDF Energy has carried out this year and follows an inspection of one of the reactors at Hinkley Point B in February. The inspection monitored the two graphite bricks which were found to have cracks during an inspection in October 2014. As expected, there has been no significant increase in the cracking of the two bricks. As the reactor continues to operate further cracks are expected to occur due to the ageing of the graphite. During this inspection we identified two additional cracked bricks as a result of keyway root cracking. This is in line with our expectations at this stage of the reactor life, there are no safety implications and it does not affect the operation of the reactor.
EDF Energy 19th May 2016 read more »
Routine inspections at Britain’s 500 megawatt Hunterston B nuclear reactor revealed no significant increase in cracking in parts of the graphite core, plant operator EDF Energy said. Two out of 6,000 graphite bricks were found to be cracked during an inspection in October 2014, though this is a normal part of the ageing process for nuclear reactors, the company said. “During this inspection we identified two additional cracked bricks as a result of keyway root cracking,” it said, adding that this was in line with expectations. It said that inspections on other stations found similar results in October 2014.
Reuters 20th May 2016 read more »