BE to shut down two more units over bolt cracking concerns

London (Platts)--13Sep2005

British Energy (BE) said it will keep the two Hartlepool AGRs off-line and
will shut down both Heysham A units because of concerns about the potential
for stress corrosion cracking of the primary "holding down" bolts. All four
units are likely to be down for at least a month, BE said. The company said
yesterday that it currently expects to lose around one terawatt of output
while carrying out the work but much depends on how things develop. Hartlepool
and Heysham A are of similar design and differ considerably from BE's other
five AGR stations. BE first raised its concerns about potential stress
corrosion cracking in May when some moisture was found on a bolt helping
anchor one of Heysham A-2's eight boilers. Then, in June, a similar bolt was
found to have "slight moisture" at Hartlepool-1. BE said this week that
"testing has shown no evidence of cracking at Hartlepool or Heysham (A) to
date."

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