Tuesday 7 May 2013

EDF Energy shuts nuclear reactor in Lancashire

A nuclear reactor in Lancashire was shut down last week after smoke was seen coming from a plant.

EDF Energy, which operates the reactor, said the 1,160MW Heysham 1 nuclear power station (pictured) was "safely and manually shut down”.

An on-site team saw smoke lagging on a turbine and a dry powder extinguisher was used to deal with it. No one was injured in the incident.

Ian Stewart, Station Director at Heysham 1 said: “The site’s own fire teams handled this small incident professionally and calmly within a few minutes. This is a very minor incident we will be looking into the cause and ensuring that we learn any lessons from it which will help us avoid any repeat event in the future.”

Heysham 1 is capable of supplying nearly 2.5 million homes with electricity – enough to keep three cities the size of Liverpool supplied during peak hours.