France’s state-controlled utility EDF has been given permission to restart its Hunterston B-1 reactor in Scotland “for a limited period of operation’, but will begin decommissioning the facility by January 2022 at the latest, the company said on Thursday.
Hunterston has two advanced gas-cooled reactor units. Hunterston B-1 is a 490-MW GCR that began commercial operation in February 1976 and Hunterston B-2 is a 495-MW GCR that began commercial operation in march 1977.
Together the two units, owned and operated by EDF UK subsidiary EDF Energy, of generate enough electricity to power around 1.7 million homes.
EDF had regulatory approval to operate until March 2023 but both reactors were taken offline in 2018 after cracks were found in the graphite bricks that form the reactor core.
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