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Hunterston B nuclear power station
Hunterston B nuclear power station is a shut-down AGR nuclear power station in North Ayrshire, Scotland. Located about six miles (ten kilometres) south of Largs and about 2+1⁄2 miles (4 kilometres) northwest of West Kilbride on the Firth of Clyde coast. It is currently operated by EDF Energy. The station began producing electricity in 1976, and was permanently shut down in 2022.
Hunterston B is similar in design to sister station Hinkley Point B, which ceased operations in August 2022.
The construction of Hunterston B was undertaken by a consortium known as The Nuclear Power Group (TNPG). The two advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGR) were supplied by TNPG and the turbines by C. A. Parsons & Co. Hunterston B began to generate electricity on 6 February 1976.
On 3 December 1977, The Times reported that seawater had entered the reactor through a modification of the secondary cooling system. The secondary cooling system used fresh water to cool parts including the bearings of the gas circulators, which circulated the carbon dioxide (CO2) coolant through the reactor to the boilers. A small leak of CO2 through a seal had developed, and a bypass pipe was installed to remove the water contaminated with CO2 to the seawater cooling ponds. When maintenance work was carried out on the reactor and the pressure in the gas cooling system was reduced, sea water was able to flow back up this bypass pipe and into the reactor. The residual heat of the reactor was such that the seawater evaporated rapidly, leaving deposits of salt in the reactor around the gas circuit.
It was estimated at the time that the reactor could be out of operation for a year, that the repairs could cost £14 million, and that electricity tariffs would have to rise by between 1 and 2 per cent. Extensive modelling work was performed in the Nuclear Power Company's (NPC) Whetstone, Leicestershire, fluid flow laboratories to determine where the salt would have been deposited, and the salt was successfully removed by technicians using vacuum cleaners and the plant returned to operation.
In February 1997, there was concern that contaminated CO2 gas from the plant had entered three road tankers and then entered the food chain via soft drinks and beers. Carlsberg-Tetley withdrew all its gas cylinders in Scotland as a result of finding contamination in one.
In December 1998, an INES Level 2 incident occurred after severe winds and sea spray disabled all four power lines to the site during the Boxing Day Storm of 1998. After multiple grid failures in a short period of time, emergency diesel generators failed to start. Normally, in the absence of power for the reactor cooling pumps, the reactor would be passively cooled. However, the emergency control system which would have initiated passive cooling failed to act, as it had not been reset. Reactor cooling was reinstated after four hours. There was considerable confusion and delay in restoring power as plant schematics and security systems were computerised but were rendered inoperable due to lack of electrical power.
Due to the inherent safety margins of the AGR reactor design, there was no reactor damage, and the plant would have tolerated loss of cooling for 20 hours. The subsequent investigation made several recommendations: redesign of the insulators on the 400 kV power lines, installation of an additional 132 kV power line for emergency power, a second diesel generator building remote from the first, installation of an uninterruptible power supply for the reactor safety systems and for essential computer equipment, provision of hard copy plant schematics and emergency protocols, and revised staff training procedures including simulation of multiple simultaneous system failures.
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Hunterston B nuclear power station
Hunterston B nuclear power station is a shut-down AGR nuclear power station in North Ayrshire, Scotland. Located about six miles (ten kilometres) south of Largs and about 2+1⁄2 miles (4 kilometres) northwest of West Kilbride on the Firth of Clyde coast. It is currently operated by EDF Energy. The station began producing electricity in 1976, and was permanently shut down in 2022.
Hunterston B is similar in design to sister station Hinkley Point B, which ceased operations in August 2022.
The construction of Hunterston B was undertaken by a consortium known as The Nuclear Power Group (TNPG). The two advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGR) were supplied by TNPG and the turbines by C. A. Parsons & Co. Hunterston B began to generate electricity on 6 February 1976.
On 3 December 1977, The Times reported that seawater had entered the reactor through a modification of the secondary cooling system. The secondary cooling system used fresh water to cool parts including the bearings of the gas circulators, which circulated the carbon dioxide (CO2) coolant through the reactor to the boilers. A small leak of CO2 through a seal had developed, and a bypass pipe was installed to remove the water contaminated with CO2 to the seawater cooling ponds. When maintenance work was carried out on the reactor and the pressure in the gas cooling system was reduced, sea water was able to flow back up this bypass pipe and into the reactor. The residual heat of the reactor was such that the seawater evaporated rapidly, leaving deposits of salt in the reactor around the gas circuit.
It was estimated at the time that the reactor could be out of operation for a year, that the repairs could cost £14 million, and that electricity tariffs would have to rise by between 1 and 2 per cent. Extensive modelling work was performed in the Nuclear Power Company's (NPC) Whetstone, Leicestershire, fluid flow laboratories to determine where the salt would have been deposited, and the salt was successfully removed by technicians using vacuum cleaners and the plant returned to operation.
In February 1997, there was concern that contaminated CO2 gas from the plant had entered three road tankers and then entered the food chain via soft drinks and beers. Carlsberg-Tetley withdrew all its gas cylinders in Scotland as a result of finding contamination in one.
In December 1998, an INES Level 2 incident occurred after severe winds and sea spray disabled all four power lines to the site during the Boxing Day Storm of 1998. After multiple grid failures in a short period of time, emergency diesel generators failed to start. Normally, in the absence of power for the reactor cooling pumps, the reactor would be passively cooled. However, the emergency control system which would have initiated passive cooling failed to act, as it had not been reset. Reactor cooling was reinstated after four hours. There was considerable confusion and delay in restoring power as plant schematics and security systems were computerised but were rendered inoperable due to lack of electrical power.
Due to the inherent safety margins of the AGR reactor design, there was no reactor damage, and the plant would have tolerated loss of cooling for 20 hours. The subsequent investigation made several recommendations: redesign of the insulators on the 400 kV power lines, installation of an additional 132 kV power line for emergency power, a second diesel generator building remote from the first, installation of an uninterruptible power supply for the reactor safety systems and for essential computer equipment, provision of hard copy plant schematics and emergency protocols, and revised staff training procedures including simulation of multiple simultaneous system failures.