Plant Operation

Cracks In Graphite Bricks At UK’s Hunterston ‘Have No Safety Significance’

By David Dalton
23 November 2015

Cracks In Graphite Bricks At UK’s Hunterston ‘Have No Safety Significance’
The Hunterston B nuclear station in Scotland.

23 Nov (NucNet): Cracking in graphite bricks in the core of one of the two gas-cooled reactor units at the Hunterston B nuclear power station in Scotland was predicted to start happening at this point in the station’s lifetime and does not affect the operation of the reactor, EDF Energy said.

“The findings have no safety implications and are well within any limits for safe operation,” the company said in a statement. “Inspections on the station’s other reactor found similar results in October 2014.”

The cracks in three graphite bricks were found during planned maintenance at the station.

Station director Colin Weir said: “It is accepted by our regulators and materials experts that cracks will occur in some of the bricks and that the core will lose some of its mass as part of the normal ageing process. The observations were anticipated and are in line with our understanding, so our view of the best estimate lifetime planning date of 2023 has not changed.”

The graphite core of the reactor is made up of around 6,000 graphite bricks – 3,000 of which contain fuel channels – which are all connected. The structure is designed to contain many redundant bricks meaning a very large number of bricks would have to crack before there were any significant safety concerns.

For more information see he UK’s Office for Nuclear Regulation: http://bit.ly/1OnMU8m

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