Torness in unplanned nuclear shutdown

A NUCLEAR reactor at Torness power station in East Lothian activated its safety system to close itself down at the weekend – nearly a week ahead of a scheduled “MOT”.

But last night power company EDF Energy said that while one of its two reactors going offline at the plant near Dunbar was unplanned, there was no cause for public concern.

A company spokeswoman said she was not yet able to release details of why the reactor went offline on Sunday.

Planned maintenance involving a team of up to 500 staff will now be brought forward and take place this week.

A spokeswoman for the company, which owns and operates eight power stations in the UK, including Hunterston in Ayrshire, said: “Torness R2 came offline yesterday (13 May). It was unplanned, however we may take the opportunity to begin the planned statutory outage, which was due to begin on 19 May, a few days early.”

The National Grid is responsible for “balancing” the electricity going out from power plants across the country and there is not believed to be any threat to supplies.

Torness began generating electricity in 1988 but is due to be decommissioned in 2023.

Dr Richard Dixon, green group WWF Scotland director, said: “Nuclear power has once again proven itself to be unreliable. We should all be thankful that Scotland has grown its renewable energy capacity enough to be able to deal with Torness nuclear power station going offline without warning.

“As we tap into ever more of our huge renewable resource we look forward to the day Scotland can switch off nuclear power for good.”

Last June, both reactors at the plant were shut down after “high volumes” of jellyfish were found on seawater filter screens.