Working weekend – EDF nuclear plants back online

Four of EDF Energy’s nuclear reactors were plugged back into the UK’s power system over the weekend. It should ease up pressure on the national grid which was facing much tighter […]

Four of EDF Energy’s nuclear reactors were plugged back into the UK’s power system over the weekend.

It should ease up pressure on the national grid which was facing much tighter margins this winter after the surprise outages of two EDF nuclear plants earlier in September.

The reconnections bring to an end three months of inspections at Hartlepool and Heysham 1 after a crack was found in the boiler of a unit at Heysham.

EDF said “no defects” were found in the other 31 boilers it checked during the inspected.

Two shorter closures were also ended: Dungeness B was resynchronised to the grid on Saturday after a minor fault in a boiler feed pump, while early this morning a unit at Torness came back online after a short outage for repairs.

Another reactor at Hartlepool is expected to return to service on Wednesday while Heysham’s unit 1 could be back in action by the end of the year.

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