Showing posts with label Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station. Show all posts

Thursday, July 19, 2012

UK's Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station in Automatic Shutdown, Cause Unknown


From UBAlert (7/19/2012):

Sizewell B nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast has had its second automatic shutdown in four months. Owner EDF Energy said electricity production had ceased at 17:11 BST on Wednesday and it was investigating the cause of the stoppage. A spokesman said: "The reactor was safely shut down, with the plant responding as expected and at no time was anyone's safety at risk." The plant had an 11-day automatic stoppage in March. EDF said it was not predicting when the plant would begin generating again. The company said the March shutdown had been the first automatic one in three years and was for an electrical fault in the non-nuclear side of the plant. There was a controlled stoppage in May to fix a lubrication problem. EDF Energy said Sizewell B produced enough electricity for two million homes, or about 3% the UK's electricity needs.


Is this kind of "automatic shutdown" with cause unknown a common event occurring at nuclear power plants all over the world, but people and the media (like Reuters) have started to pay more attention because of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident?

(H/T anon reader)