Cracks have been found in bricks in the core of a nuclear reactor at the Hunterston B power station.

It is understood the cracks were discovered in two of the 6,000 graphite bricks in the core of reactor four at the Ayrshire-based facility.

In a statement, EDF Energy, which operates the plant, said the cracking had been predicted however, and would not affect the operation of the reactor.

The cracks were found during a routine inspection which began in August, it has been said, and the operator said this is to be expected as the facility gets older.

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In a statement, Colin Weir, Station Director at Hunterston B, explained: "Every time we take the reactor out of service for planned maintenance we inspect the graphite core which is made up of around 6,000 bricks.

"During the current Hunterston outage we found two bricks with a new crack which is what we predicted during Hunterston B's lifetime as a result of extensive research and modelling."

He continued: "It will not affect the operation of this reactor and we also expect that a few additional cracks will occur during the next period of operation. The small number of cracked bricks found during routine inspection is in line with our expectations, the findings have no safety implications and are well within any limits for safe operation agreed with our regulator."

(JP/IT)