Engineering news
Cracks have been found in bricks that make up the core of one of the two reactors at the Hunterston B nuclear power station in North Ayrshire.
EDF Energy said that two cracked bricks were found during a planned maintenance inspection of 6,000 that make up the reactor's graphite core.
The operator said that the cracks were predicted and did not pose any safety risks.
Colin Weir, station director at Hunterston B, said: "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.
"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."
The nuclear power station began operating in 1976 and was originally scheduled to be shut-down in 2011 but this was extended to 2016.
EDF Energy later said a technical and economic evaluation of the plant confirmed it could operate until 2023.
WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: "News of yet more cracks in the country's ageing fleet of nuclear power stations underscores why we're right to be taking steps to harness cleaner, safer forms of energy.
"These cracks are a sign that we can expect these nuclear facilities to become increasingly unreliable in the future.
"As Scotland continues to grow its renewables capacity we can look forward to a day when we can switch off nuclear power for good."