11 Dec (NucNet): British Energy (BE) is to extend the lives of its Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B nuclear power plants by five years to 2016, the company announced today.
BE also said further studies will be carried out by 2013 regarding the potential for additional life extensions beyond 2016.
BE’s chief executive officer Bill Coley said the decision to extend the lives of the two plants was based on a comprehensive technical and economic evaluation. The company said the operation of the plants over their extended lives will be subject to the results of the continuing programme of inspection and assessment of the boilers and the core.
Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B each have two gas-cooled reactor units which began commercial operation in the late 1970s. All four units were shut down in October 2006 to allow for inspection, repair and the preparation of safety cases related to boiler tube cracking issues.
Hinkley Point B, in south-west England, and Hunterston B, in Scotland, are currently operating with load factors in a range around 60 percent. BE said further boiler refurbishment and optimisation work will be undertaken during planned outages over the next financial year. The target is to reach a load factor of approximately 70 percent.
At 70 percent load factor, life extension is economically viable at a power price of approximately 2.7 British pence (5.5 US cents, 3.7 euro cents) per kilowatt-hour (kWh). BE said it will consider the technical and economic case to the increase load factor above 70 percent, together with the additional investment requirements.
To allow Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B to continue operating BE expects to spend an additional GBP 90 million (USD 185 million, EUR 125 million) in excess of the current investment programme for the two plants, over the three years beginning 1 April 2008.
In June 2007, BE said unplanned outages at Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B resulted in 9.4 billion kWh of losses and were the main reason for a reduction in nuclear output of 9.2 billion kWh for fiscal year 2006-2007.
BE said the potential for life extensions at the company’s other nuclear power plants will be considered “in due course”.
