Regulator Gives Go-Ahead For Oldbury Unit 1 Restart
Written by NucNet
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
The UK’s regulator, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII), has given its permission for the restart of unit 1 at the Oldbury Magnox nuclear power plant in Gloucestershire.
Magnox North, which manages and operates the twin-unit site under contract to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), said today that taking account of fuel availability and reprocessing schedules at Sellafield, unit 1 is now likely to run through 2009 and 2010. It was originally scheduled for closure at the end of 2008. Unit 2, which had also been scheduled for closure on 31 December 2008, is still generating electricity.
Throughout 2008 the plant had been working towards extended generation, including an evaluation of the periodic safety review – the key document used by the NII to check the safety of the site.
During unit 1’s extended outage detailed camera inspections of more than 1,000 of its 3,308 fuel channels have been completed. The inspections confirmed that the reactor is in good condition.
Oldbury is one of only two of the UK’s first generation of commercial nuclear plants still operating. Twenty-six Magnox units were built in the UK – where the design originated – between 1956 and 1971.
