Hunterston B: Cracks revealed in nuclear reactor in North Ayrshire

[Did You See Them]

Footage has been released showing some of the hundreds of tiny cracks inside a nuclear reactor in North Ayrshire.

Reactor 3 at the Hunterston B plant has been shut down for 12 months after the cracks were found to be growing faster than expected.

Cracks are expected to form over time in all the UK's nuclear reactors, but recent close-up filming at Hunterston has revealed around 370 small fractures.

EDF, which runs the plant 35 miles west of Glasgow, said they were 1mm when first seen in 2017.

The cracks cannot be repaired because it is too dangerous and in the near future the reactor - like others around Britain - will have to be decommissioned.

The company is planning to ask permission from the nuclear watchdog, the Office of Nuclear Regulation, to restart the reactor.

The 10m-high, 1,400-tonne reactor is made up of 3,000 graphite bricks and the plant provides electricity for 1.8 million homes when all the reactors are running.


https://news.sky.com/story/huntersto...shire-11658651

[yelik]

Nuclear reactors leak all the time - the Government & industry gag the reporting of such events