Crumbling Nuclear Power station at Sizewell is proving difficult to repair

Our nuclear power stations in Britain are so old that they are wearing out. Since they are highly radioactive, they are very difficult to repair.

On the 9th of April, the people trying to repair Sizewell B (Lake Acquisitions) said it was going to take longer than they had expected.

The power station had to be shut down on the 17th March because there were higher than normal moisture levels inside the containment building. Lake Acquisitions - a wholly-owned subsidiary of EDF - said the problem related to one of the heaters associated with the pressuriser. The component is not part of the reactor pressure vessel but is connected to the cooling circuit.
At first they thought that they could repair it quite quickly in the same way that they had done in similar power stations. But when they looked at the damage in more detail they found that they would have to develop existing repair techniques further before being able to start work. So they are still studying how to carry out the repairs and have no idea when the nuclear power station can start up again
Lake Acquisitions said they expected to lose about  2TWh to 3TWh worth of electricity.

Story provided by Business Financial Newswire

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