KENT NEWS: It was the first commercial scale power station to be constructed in the UK, producing enough electricity to power a million homes.
And despite being dropped from Government’s list of possible sites for another nuclear power station, Prime Minister Gordon Brown stressed its importance to future energy development.
But for seven months, Dungeness power station has lain dormant – failing to generate even a small amount of electricity.
Industry experts said its operator EDF could be losing as much as £2 million a week.
One of two reactors at the Dungeness B plant, which employs 500 staff, was closed in July, 2009, for routine maintenance work and the second closed in November when repair work had to be carried out following a fire.
EDF has been unable to give a specific time of when it would be in service again, citing commercial reasons.
But industry insiders have revealed that statutory maintenance of this kind, as well as the repair work, should not have taken this long.
Nuclear energy expert John Large, from Large and Associates in London, said eight-10 weeks is the usual timescale.
“EDF must meet every safety clause on its nuclear site licence and if it doesn’t then the reactors can’t start,” he said.
“There could be a serious generic problem delaying this. It could be the fuel plugs or a problem with the graphite core of the reactors which is non-repairable.
“It could even be put down to ageing – Dungeness is in a kind of time warp.”
Mr Large told Kent on Saturday EDF could be losing as much as £2m a week, but still must maintain its contract conditions with the National Grid.
“It doesn’t matter if the power station isn’t working, they still have to supply the grid,” he said.
“The company will be going to its other power stations to try and get electricity to do so, but with winter being a time of great demand, the pressure is really on, plus EDF will have to pay transport costs.
“They will be losing a massive amount of money, especially as Dungeness produces around a seventh of their output.”
Mr Large also revealed that despite the official closing date set out by EDF of July, 2009, for the repair works, the actual date the first reactor stopped working was in March, 2009.
“EDF had the site closed down in March for inspection and so really the power station has been closed for almost a year,” he said.
He also stated the company was already under pressure after Dungeness was turned down as a possible site for another nuclear power station.
“EDF believed the value of the site was about £450million because of the potential to develop another station on the land, but this has changed now it has been taken off the Government’s list” he said.
A spokesperson at EDF said the shutdown of the first reactor was for normal statutory outage and most of the work has been completed.
She said: “We still have a small number of inspections to do which are external to the reactor and to carry these out we are obtaining some specialist equipment that is being manufactured.
“Once this arrives on site these final inspections will be carried out and we expect to return the unit to service.
“The other unit at Dungeness is nearing completion of its outage and does not need these additional inspections.
“We expect the return to service in the near future.”
A spokesperson for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said consent is required from the body before the reactors can be restarted and an assessment is currently underway.
Dungeness is made up of two stations, with A now in the process of being decommissioned.
All 500 staff are still employed by EDF and are carrying out routine work at the plant.
POSTED: 11/02/2010 13:19:28
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