British Energy, the problem-hit utility, has lost the use of one of its nuclear reactors at Torness in the run-up to Christmas after a weekend hydrogen leak.
The Herald understands that the reactor at the East Lothian plant is likely to be out of use for between one and three weeks after being shut down on Saturday afternoon.
A spokeswoman said: "We are currently investigating the cause of the leak and working on the repair and restart plan. We are also determining whether we will take the opportunity to carry out additional maintenance work while the unit is off."
The company would not confirm when the 485 megawatt reactor would restart for "commercial reasons". The company is worried that disclosing the information might push up the price it would have to pay for electricity to cover the outage.
One analyst told The Herald that while this shutdown was likely to be relatively short, it was damaging while the company was still unable to give a timescale for restarts of its Heysham and Hartlepool plants which have been closed since October.
Most analysts expect them to be out for the next three to four months. A spokeswoman said inspections were continuing on all four reactors with thinning or corrosion around the boilers found in Hartlepool 1, Heysham 1 reactor one and Heysham 1 reactor 2. It is still to complete inspections on Heysham 2 reactor 2.
Previous problems at Torness include a seaweed blockage of the pipes bringing cooling water into the plant in August 2006, which forced the closure of both reactors.
Another Scottish plant, Hunterston B nuclear power station in Ayrshire, has had its share of problems, closing due to a power cut in early October.
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