Nuclear reactor shut by storm

19 December 2011

The picture that dominated media coverage of the fierce storms earlier this month was a wind turbine bursting into flames. But at the same time one of Scotland’s nuclear reactors had to be closed down.

A 460-megawatt reactor at Hunterston in North Ayrshire was shut for two days because of a problem with local power lines caused by high winds. Critics point out that the burning wind turbine was designed to generate just one megawatt.

Hunterston’s operator, EDF Energy, said the reactor came offline on 8 December and was returned to power on 10 December. “It went off because of a fault on the national grid and not as a result of any problem with plant equipment,” said an EDF spokeswoman.

According to the National Grid company, storm force winds caused the 400,000-volt electricity transmission line owned by Scottish Power between substations at Hunterston and Inverkip to trip.

“This resulted in the disconnection of one of the generating units at Hunterston power station that feeds into the high-voltage transmission network at Hunterston substation,” said a company spokesman.

Comments

[Alexander Lough,]

I agree with what Mr Swan has said,the reasonpeople don't know about how dangerous this area outside Dunbar is,is because SEPA are indenial.
Lafarge and Viridor are self monitoring,what does that say.
They go on because SEPA
allow them to.

[David Swan]

Do you think the French are going to tell the truth? I doubt it. We had 40 nuclear releases and never heard a squeak for years, and we also have the worst polluter in Scotland, Lafarge, that works under company confidentiality. They bully their employes with the sack if they say anything and have SEPA in their pocket too. SEPA is short for the South East Pollution Agency.