Hinkley Point B Nuclear Power Station

Hinkley Point B nuclear power station
Hinkley Point B seen from the beach
Location of Hinkley Point B nuclear power station in Somerset
Country	England
Location	Somerset, South West England
Coordinates	51°12′33″N 3°07′39″W / 51.209034°N 3.127477°WCoordinates: 51°12′33″N 3°07′39″W / 51.209034°N 3.127477°W
Status	Operational
Construction began	1967
Commission date	1976
Decommission date	Expected 2023
Owner(s)	Central Electricity Generating Board (1976–1989) Nuclear Electric (1989–1996) British Energy (1996–2009) EDF Energy (2009–present)
Operator(s)	EDF Energy
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	Advanced gas cooled reactor
Reactor supplier	Whessoe and Strachan & Henshaw
Fuel type	Enriched Uranium
Fuel supplier	Westinghouse Electric UK Limited
Cooling source	Severn Estuary
Power generation
Units operational	2 x 625 MWe (Operating at ~490 MWe [1] )
Make and model	General Electric Company
Thermal capacity	2 x 1500 MWt (Gross)
Nameplate capacity	1250 MWe
Website EDF Energy
grid reference ST211460

Hinkley Point B is a nuclear power station near Bridgwater, Somerset, on the Bristol Channel coast of south west England. It was the first commercial Advanced Gas Cooled reactor to generate power to the National Grid in 1976 and shares its design with sister station Hunterston B nuclear power station.

History

The construction of Hinkley Point B, which was undertaken by a consortium known as The Nuclear Power Group (TNPG),^[2] started in 1967. The reactors vessels were supplied by Whessoe, reactor machinery was supplied by Strachan & Henshaw and the turbines by GEC.^[3]

In March 1971 it was announced that there would be a six-month delay in completion due to problems with the insulation of the concrete pressure vessel. In place of the stainless steel mesh and foil insulation that had been used on previous Magnox stations, a fibrous type of insulation supplied by Delaney Gallay, part of the Lindustries Group, had been used for the first time. During pre-operational trials, before the nuclear fuel was loaded, high levels of acoustic vibration in the gas circuit were found to be damaging the insulation tiles, and the retention plates which held the insulation in place had to be redesigned and modified within the reactor.^[4]

During further pre-operational testing, severe vibration of the fuel channel gags was detected. The fuel channel gags are valves which are gradually closed to restrict the flow of gas through a fuel channel in order to maintain the channel gas outlet temperature as the nuclear fuel is used up. Modifications to produce a fluidically generated bias force to stop the gags vibrating took time to design, test and implement, delaying the planned start up date.^[5] The station began generating electricity on 5 February 1976.

It was taken over by Nuclear Electric as part of the privatisation of the UK Electricity Supply Industry in 1990, though remaining in public ownership at that time. In 1996, the AGR and PWR assets of Nuclear Electric and Scottish Nuclear were privatised as part of British Energy.

In 2006 the station's reactors were shut down in order to inspect the boilers for microscopic weld defects that had been found in power stations using similar boiler designs. While it was implied in the media that these were major holes gushing steam, had this been the case the loss of pressure would lead to an automatic shut down to prevent damage. Due to its age, on 16 August 2006 the company warned that until a decision was made over whether to extend its usable life it would operate at a maximum of 70 per cent load. Both reactors were subsequently restarted generating 420 MW each, roughly 70% of full capacity. The number 4 reactor was cleared for restart by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate on 11 May 2007. ^[6] The power station's current accounting closure date is 2023.^[7]

In July 2013, EDF Energy announced that the load on both of the station reactors had been increased to 80 per cent, resulting in an output of around 485-500MWe per reactor up from 70 per cent load, where it had been generating around 420MWe per reactor since 2006.^[8]

Hinkley Point B is the only one of four nuclear power stations in the area which is operational, the others being decommissioned are the adjacent Hinkley Point A together with Oldbury and Berkeley on the banks of the River Severn.

In October 2016 it was announced that super-articulated control rods would be installed in the reactor because of concerns about the stability of the reactors' graphite cores. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) had raised concerns over the number of fractures in keyways that lock together the graphite bricks in the core. An unusual event, such as an earthquake, might destabilise the graphite so that ordinary control rods that shut the reactor down could not be inserted. Super-articulated control rods should be insertable even into a destabilised core.^[9]

Specification

The station is of the advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) type with two 1600 MWt reactors, each with their own 660 MWe steam turbine generator set giving a combined maximum design generating capacity of 1250 MW. As of 2013 it provided over 1% of the UK's total power output.^[10]

Future of the station

The current estimated decommissioning date for the station is set for 2023, which was established in 2012 when the station's owner EDF Energy announced a seven year extension, taking the decommissioning date from 2016 up to 2023.

Proposed Hinkley Point C

A new 3,260 MW Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, consisting of two EPR reactors, was given planning consent on 19 March 2013.^[11] A guaranteed "strike price" of £92.50 per megawatt-hour (to be indexed for inflation over 45 years) was announced on 21 October 2013. The new power station would see Hinkley's contribution to the country's power supply rise to 7%.^[10] At the time of the planning consent, the price for electric energy on the wholesale market was around £45 per megawatt-hour while the new power plant was expected to need earnings of £90 per megawatt-hour in order to break even.^[12]

The EU gave (8 October 2014) its consent to the 'Contract for Difference (CFD)' that guarantees the "strike price".^[13] Greenpeace Energy have announced that they have mandated 'Becker Büttner Held' to file a lawsuit against the EU commission.^[14]

See also

• Energy policy of the United Kingdom
• Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom
• James L. Gray

References

1. "Hinkley Point B EDF Energy". Retrieved 14 Oct 2014.
2. "Nuclear Development in the United Kingdom". World Nuclear Association. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
3. "Nuclear Power Plants in the UK". Industcards.com. Retrieved 2013-10-20.
4. The Times, Tuesday, 30 Mar 1971
5. The Times, Thursday, 13 Feb 1975
6. "Nuclear plant gets nod to restart". BBC. 11 May 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-31.
7. EDF Energy WCM (4 December 2012). "EDF Energy announces seven year life extension to Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B nuclear power stations - EDF Energy 4 December 2012". Edfenergy.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013.
8. "Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B return to 80% load". NucEngInt. 1 July 2013. Retrieved 2015-05-12.
9. "Nuclear reactor cracks 'challenge safety case'". BBC News. 31 October 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
10. "UK nuclear power plant set for go-ahead". bbc.co.uk. 2013-10-13. Retrieved 2013-10-20.
11. Harvey, Dave Harvey (19 March 2013). "What price nuclear power? The final hurdle for Hinkley". BBC. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
12. What price nuclear power? The final hurdle for Hinkley BBC, 19 March 2013.
13. State aid: Commission concludes modified UK measures for Hinkley Point nuclear power plant are compatible with EU rules
14. 12 March 2015: BBH bereitet Klage gegen EU-Kommission vor