British Energy shares dipped sharply yesterday after the nuclear generator confirmed yet another repair problem affecting one of its ageing reactors.
The company said inspections of Heysham 1 Reactor 2 had "so far not shown any evidence of broken wires" in the boiler closure unit.
"However, there is evidence from the radiographic inspections that are in progress that one wire is showing signs of thinning. This will likely place the Reactor in the same category as Hartlepool Reactor 1 and Heysham 1 Reactor 1 for a return to service safety case and/or remedial repairs."
The problem first emerged during a statutory inspection of the Hartlepool reactor, which had been scheduled to restart this month, when it was discovered that a wire had failed owing to corrosion.
The company warned a month ago that it was taking the "conservative decision" to inspect the wiring at all the reactor's sister units, three in all, at Hartlepool and Heysham, and earlier this month said a similar problem had been found at the first Heysham reactor.
The design of the boiler closure units is unique to the two nuclear stations, and the problem is described as a "legacy issue of the initial construction".
The shares gave up 19p to 458.75p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article