The UK company British Energy has said it will have to shut down two nuclear reactors after finding cracked pipes at two power stations.
Britain's biggest power producer also said it was examining "a significant leak" in an underground cast iron pipe in the cooling water systems at Hartlepool, northeast England.
Asked about any risks to public safety, a company spokesman said that boiler tubes at Hinkley in western England and Hunterston in Scotland were cracked but not leaking, and that water leaking from the pipes in Hartlepool was "non-nuclear".
Finance director Stephen Billingham, speaking to analysts on a conference call, said that British Energy would now have to buy electricity in the wholesale market to fill its contracts. - (Financial Times service)
