Published: Wednesday, 13th February, 2008 11:30
Hunterston 'B' may extend beyond 2016
By Calum Corral
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The lifetime of Hunterston as a functioning power station could continue beyond 2016 despite recent setbacks, the ‘News’ can exclusively reveal.
Hunterston “B” station manager Tom Ungi revealed at a public meeting that British Energy were investigating the possibility of sustaining the power plant longer than initially expected. The lifetime of the station was originally to end in 2011 but was recently given a five year extension but the limit could be put back further than 2016.
Mr Ungi said that following boiler inspections and repairs, reactor core inspections during the past year, there could be further scope to continue the industry at Hunterston.
He said: “We believe there is potential for the ‘B’ station to continue working beyond 2016. There is going to be further investigation to see whether this is possible. It concerns a number of factors - being able to continue operating the plant safely and reliably, and being able to continue to invest in people and the plant. This is happening at the moment with 527 staff in the power plant at present and £200m has been spent in terms of investment.”
Mr Ungi added: “It might not be possible to extend the lifetime of the station beyond 2016 but it might be. We are going to look into it over the next three years.”
During the current extension project to go beyond 2011, Mr Ungi said: “I have been involved in life time extensions in the past but never one lie this which has been done with so much resources and has gone into so much detail. We will now be considering the potential for extending the life of Hunterston ‘B’ beyond 2016.
At present, the Scottish Government have ruled out the possibility of any future nuclear new build being built. However, general strategy manger for British Energy, Paul Spence, said that with nuclear expansion being announced by the Westminster government, it makes sense to build in areas where there is already nuclear power plants.
In terms of future nuclear energy needs, Mr Spence also warned that the importing of gas from unreliable countries could have a dire effect. He said: “Nuclear energy is a critical part of the energy mix. If you look at the likes of imported gas, you just need to look at what happened when Vladamir Putin turned off the gas supplies to Eastern Europe as a political point, and almost certainly an economic weapon whereas nuclear is reliable and 50% of uranium comes from Australia and Canada.”
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