The closure of the nuclear power plant at Dungeness B was a “crushing blow”, Jerry Haller, nuclear decommissioning director at EDF Energy, told the Parliamentary Accounts Committee last week in a session on the future of the UK’s AGR reactors, which are coming to the end of their lives.
He said the reason for Dungeness’s closure was not ageing of graphite blocks in the core, as had eventually closed other so-called AGR reactors such as Hunterston.
As a Dungeness B was a ‘prototype’ reactor, Haller said, with a unique ‘first of a kind’ design unlike the other six AGRs. “We had invested very heavily and in 2014 we decided it could run [for longer]. It is a very young station in terms of its primary ageing mechanisms – graphite and boilers. We extended it [the station’s planned life] to 2028 and we put a lot of money into it, and in 2018 we took it offline to do some more investment in it in terms of things like conventional steam pipework.
“Unfortunately we found at the back end of that, a technical component that is irreplaceable, that is not on our list of things that should limit the life and so it is a crushing blow that we couldn’t take it past that point and we had to close it”.
No further investment will keep the other AGRs running for longer than their current closure date, he said. They have had “all the money they can usefully use” and the company was focused on generating as much power as possible during their remaining lifetimes.
Sizewell is expected to run to 2055, he confirmed.