The Dungeness B nuclear plant in Kent is to be closed permanently seven years earlier than planned after problems including corrosion rendered it beyond repair.
The decision by EDF, its owner, means that Britain will lose five of its eight nuclear plants within the next three years, removing low-carbon generation capable of supplying ten million homes.
Pro-nuclear groups said that Britain would be forced to rely on gas plants with higher emissions to keep the lights on and warned of an “energy gap” if new reactors were not built.
Dungeness B was capable of powering about two million homes, but it has been offline for maintenance since September 2018 when problems with its pipework were discovered.
EDF has since spent £200 million trying to repair the plant. Although it mended the pipework, it discovered further issues, including corrosion to its boilers, which cannot be replaced.
EDF was repeatedly forced to delay its restart and yesterday said that “new detailed analysis has further highlighted additional station-specific risks within some key components, including parts within the fuel assemblies . . . As a result, EDF has taken a decision not to restart the plant but to move it into the defuelling stage.”
The plant employs about 500 staff and 250 contractors, but EDF said jobs were not at risk at this stage as it would begin defuelling the plant, a process expected to take several years.
EDF, the French state nuclear group, operates all eight of Britain’s nuclear plants, which used to account for about a fifth of energy supplies. That proportion declined in recent years amid safety problems at several plants, including cracks in the graphite cores at Hunterston B and Hinkley Point B that will force both to close by next year, earlier than planned. Two other plants, Heysham 1 and Hartlepool, are due to close by March 2024.
EDF is building a new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point C, but that has been delayed and is not due to start generating until June 2026. It wants to build another new plant at Sizewell in Suffolk.
Dungeness B started generating in 1983 after a difficult construction that began in 1967. Originally due to close in 2008, the plant’s lifespan was initially extended until 2018 then extended once more to 2028.
Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said that the decision “underscores the urgency of investing in new nuclear capacity to hit net zero”.