Unit 3 was manually shut down yesterday at 18.40 at the nuclear power station based on the West coast of Scotland due to high levels of seaweed in the waters around the power station’s water intake system, which was also accompanied by strong winds and storm surges.
In a letter to the Hunterston Site Stakeholder Group today EDF Energy said it took the “precautionary” measure when it was clear the seaweed levels weren’t reducing.
EDF Energy said unit 3 was producing 501MW yesterday before it was taken offline. The generator wouldn’t confirm how much capacity has been lost from powering down reactor 4.
It said it was “currently monitoring weather conditions” but was unable to say when the station will be back to full capacity.
EDF Energy said it was aware of the problem of fluctuations in seaweed in the Firth of Clyde at certain points of the year, and has inbuilt mechanisms to take the station offline automatically when levels increase beyond a prescribed level.