Safety alert shuts down Torness nuclear reactor

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

A nuclear reactor at Torness power plant has been shut down after a safety alert was triggered.

The incident at the plant, which is one of Scotland’s main power stations, happened just weeks after £30 million was spent on the same reactor to get it back online.

The shutdown means the power station is now only pumping out around a quarter of the energy it usually produces as the second reactor is currently working at a reduced capacity ahead of scheduled maintenance work.

It is not yet clear how long the reactor will be offline with operators, EDF, being unable to give a timescale. However, they did insist there was no danger to the public.

A spokeswoman for the firm said the unit had been shutdown “due to an issue with the electrical system within our conventional plant” and that the operations team took “prompt action, putting safety first”. “The reactor will be returned to power as soon as testing is satisfactorily completed,” she added.

The plant, which is now 25 years old, was shut down in 2013 when an upsurge in seaweed sparked fears it could clog the cooling water intake system. In 2011, both reactors were also shut down after high volumes of jellyfish were found on seawater filter screens.

Posted in |