British Energy Restarts Heysham 1, Reactor 1

British Energy Group PLC (BGY.LN) Monday said its Heysham 1 Reactor 1 unit, which has been shut since late 2007 for repairs, has restarted.

"We now have both reactor ones at Hartlepool and Heysham back online and are busy working on unit twos at those power stations," said a British Energy spokeswoman.

The company, which is the U.K. nuclear unit of Electricite de France SA (1024251.FR), said it has synchronized the unit to the National Grid, having made engineering modifications and received the necessary consent from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate to return the unit to service.

The company also said it expects to return Reactor 2 at Hartlepool power station and Reactor 2 at Heysham 1 power station to service in a phased process over the coming weeks.

British Energy closed down four reactors in 2007 due to problems with the boiler closure units, or BCUs.

BCUs are unique to Hartlepool and Heysham 1 power stations. There are eight BCUs on each reactor which form part of the reactor pressure boundary. Each BCU is pre-stressed with nine layers of wire windings, wound around its outer periphery.

Following the discovery of a broken wire during planned inspections of the BCUs in October 2007, the units at Hartlepool and Heysham 1 power stations were taken out of service.

British Energy operates eight nuclear reactors and one coal-fired power station.

Company Web site: http://www.british-energy.com

-By Alison Birrane and Selina Williams, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail], [e-mail]

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