Shutdown at nuclear power station as reactor is repaired

A REACTOR at Torness nuclear power station has been shut down indefinitely for emergency repairs, it was revealed today.

The shutdown has reduced Scotland's nuclear energy output to a quarter of capacity, as both reactors at Hunterston in Ayrshire are currently closed for planned maintenance.

It is the eighth stoppage at Torness in the last year, raising fears that it may not reach its expected closing date in 2023.

Opposition parties today said the problems at the East Lothian plant were evidence of a "looming power gap", and called for the Scottish Government to step up its commitment to renewable energy.

The reactor at the 19-year-old power station was closed at 12.01am on Saturday for a "non-planned maintenance event".

The problem follows a six-week planned full shutdown in December, and another week-long outage for one reactor in February.

Station operator British Energy today refused to reveal when the reactor will be re-activated due to "corporate confidentiality".

However, the company said that the closure was due to a fault in a pipeline leading to turbines in the "non-nuclear area of the plant".

A British Energy spokeswoman said: "We are unable to go into specifics relating to profits, or the effect of stations being off, because that information is commercially sensitive. British Energy runs a very tight ship when it comes to operating the UK's eight nuclear power stations.

"Each nuclear station must come off for statutory maintenance or outages, and there are times when we need to take a reactor off power to carry out essential maintenance from time to time. It is the responsible thing to do, to ensure that the plants are working safely, to a high standard, and efficiently."

The Scottish Government has recently pledged to extend the life of Hunterston B to at least 2016, and keep the younger Torness plant running "until the end of its operational life".

This will take it until 2023, but there are no plans to replace the reactors beyond this time.

Scottish Labour environment spokeswoman, Sarah Boyack, said the repeated shutdowns were not a "short-term problem" as Scotland was part of the national grid.

But she added: "The issue for the SNP is what they do now to close the looming energy gap."

Lothian Green MSP Robin Harper added that he was "reasonably confident" there were no safety issues with Torness.

He said: "I'm reasonably confident that if the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate had any problems with the plant they would be recommending an early closure.

"However, we must invest more money in renewable energy and reduce the demand for energy."

A spokesman for the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate said: "We have no details on the current fault at Torness at the present time.

"However, we publish all information on major incidents at British installations in our quarterly reports. There have been no major incidents at Torness in our most recent reports."