Working on bid to keep reactor going

WORK is continuing on plans to keep one of the reactors at Oldbury Nuclear Power Station operating into 2012 – more than three years longer than originally expected.

Those running the atomic plant, near Thornbury, have to make a safety case to nuclear industry inspectors before being allowed to extend electricity generation.

Oldbury was originally due to take the reactors out of use for good at the end of 2008.

But the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) cleared the way for them to stay in use up to the end of this year.

Further requests were made to extend again to mid-2011 and now the station is looking at an even longer period of generation.

Site director Joe Lamonby told a meeting of the Oldbury Site Stakeholder Group: “Early feasibility work is being carried out on a proposal to run one reactor into 2012 – there is insufficient fuel to continue operating both reactors.

“Further discussions with our owners, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, are necessary before any significant work is carried out on the proposal and the agreement of the regulator would be necessary for the implementation of this option.”

The condition of the reactor’s graphite core, where the energy-creating reaction takes place, will be crucial to the decision.

Dr Malek Ghannad, of the NII, told the meeting in his report on the station: “Any proposal for further generation must be supported by a revised graphite safety case, which will be subject to NII assessment.”

Tests on the condition of the graphite in Reactor Two are due to start in early September.