NDA News 18 December 2008

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has today announced that Oldbury Power Station will continue to generate electricity into 2009 and beyond.

Originally planned for closure at the end of this year Oldbury now has the opportunity to continue producing electricity for a further period – likely to be around two years. Reactor 2 will continue generating power into 2009 past its scheduled closedown date of December 31st 2008. Reactor 1 remains offline and awaits a safety case to be approved by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) before it can restart.

During this year our contractor – Magnox North Limited, has been planning for this prospect, undertaking work to support the period of extended generation including an evaluation of the Periodic Safety Review – the key document used by the NII to check the safety of the site.

Brian Burnett, NDA’s Programme Director, said:

“Oldbury’s continued generation is good news as it ensures further benefit from one of the NDA’s valuable assets. The income generated over the extension period will be utilised to support our clean-up mission and Oldbury will continue to contribute to the UK’s electricity supply as it has done for the last 40 years.”

He continued: “I would like to thank Magnox North for all the work they have done to help make this happen.”

Joe Lamonby, Oldbury Site Director, said:

“As a result of excellent operation and maintenance by our experienced staff the plant and equipment are in very good condition.

“We have worked hard with each of our regulators and they have no objection to extended generation. We are pleased that this work has been successful.”