Archive for the ‘Torness’ Category

Greenpeace activists ‘risk their lives’

Monday, August 18th, 2008

GREENPEACE ACTIVISTS protesting against a shipment of nuclear waste on its way to Sellafield are putting themselves at risk of death or injury, the UK nuclear security chief has warned.

Roger Brunt, the director of the government’s Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS), has accused the international anti-nuclear group of “recklessness” during attempts to board a boat carrying plutonium-contaminated waste from Sweden. (more…)

British Energy denies Torness outage was unplanned

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

British Energy planned to take its Torness reactor in Scotland offline over the weekend and was not forced to do so, chief executive Bill Coley told an investor day presentation at Heysham, Lancashire Tuesday. (more…)

Centrica in £10bn bid to control nuclear power plants

Monday, April 7th, 2008

British Gas owners Centrica may join a £10billion consortium vying to control the UK’s nuclear power plants.

Centrica hopes to lead a continental group bidding for British Energy, which runs all of the UK’s nuke sites. (more…)

British Energy’s Torness reactor closure unplanned

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

LONDON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - British Energy’s Torness-2 nuclear power reactor stopped just after midnight on Thursday and the shutdown was unplanned, a spokeswoman for the company said.

“We are working on the restart plan,” she said on Thursday. “But we will do some additional maintenance work while the unit is off.”

She would not say what had caused the 625-MW reactor, one of two at the power plant in Scotland, to stop. (Reporting by Daniel Fineren)

Torness-2 nuclear plant restarts

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

LONDON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - British Energy’s Torness-2 nuclear reactor restarted early on Thursday after tripping on Tuesday due to a faulty reading, a spokeswoman for the company said.

The 625-megawatt power plant stopped unexpectedly on Tuesday after an apparent problem in the boiler area of the power station in Scotland.

“There wasn’t actually anything wrong with the plant,” the spokeswoman said. “It was a spurious reading.”

British Energy’s nuclear plants can produce up to one fifth of Britain’s power when they are all fully operational. (Reporting by Daniel Fineren)

BE investigating cause of hydrogen leak at Torness-1

Friday, December 7th, 2007

London (Platts)–6 Dec 2007
British Energy is investigating the cause of a hydrogen leak at Torness-1 in Scotland, BE said December 6.
BE spokeswoman Sue Fletcher said the advanced gas-cooled reactor was manually tripped December 1 following indications of the leak, which is on the conventional plant main turbo-generator. She could not say how long the reactor would be offline, she said, as BE is still devising a 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,” Fletcher said.

Seven of UK’s 19 reactors closed

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

Nearly a third of Britain’s nuclear power reactors have been out of action due to breakdowns and maintenance. Of the UK’s 19 reactors, a total of seven have been shut down.

British Energy, which operates the affected sites, said a “conservative decision” had been taken to close units after safety checks uncovered faults. (more…)

Watchdog examines nuclear alert at Torness

Saturday, December 24th, 2005

By Michael Harrison, Business Editor
Saturday, 24 December 2005

An inquiry was under way last night at the Torness nuclear power station in Scotland after an incident involving fuel rods in one of its reactors.

Anti-nuclear campaigners said the incident was just the latest in a series of problems at the British Energy-owned site and called for the investigation to be wide ranging. (more…)