NUCLEAR power station chiefs at Oldbury have been criticised for seeking official consent to put off inspection operations on an ageing atomic reactor.

The station was originally planning to delay the statutory maintenance shutdown of its number 2 reactor - originally scheduled to take place last November - until the end of January.

Now station bosses have requested the go ahead to put off the inspection even longer until after the reactor's permanent closure at the end of the year, when it will be 40 years old.

The move has been branded as "completely outrageous" by the Shut Oldbury campaign, which wants to see the outdated Magnox plant taken out of action immediately because of long standing concerns over the condition of its graphite core.

Campaign spokesman Jim Duffy said vital inspection of the core would be impossible without a lengthy shutdown.

He said: "The regulators said last June they couldn't licence the reactor to the end of 2008.

"For Oldbury to make this request is completely outrageous and could have unthinkable consequences especially as they haven't fitted the extra safety system we have called for. Shutting it finally now is the only safe option."

Reactor 2 at Oldbury suffered a series of incidents when it was restarted last May after being out of action for two years.

First there was an explosion and fire in a transformer. Then, in July, when a second attempt was made to start the reactor, a turbine began vibrating, again causing the reactor to shut down.

With replaced turbine parts the reactor eventually restarted in August and has since operated without incident.

Oldbury operators asked the safety regulator to put off an inspection shutdown date scheduled for November to the end of January as the reactor had been off-stream for two extra months.

In a letter to the pressure group, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) states: "Currently the company is expected to shut down reactor 2 for maintenance at the end of January 2008.

"However, in the light of the small operating period since the commencement of the last outage, the company has applied to the NII for permission to postpone certain aspects of maintenance to allow the reactor to continue operation to the end of December 2008.

"A key aspect of the NII decision regarding deferment of the outage is the graphite core safety case."

Station director Joe Lamonby said the Reactor 2 graphite core had undergone extensive TV camera inspection involving examination of approximately 15,000 graphite bricks.

"It has confirmed that the core is in good condition," he said. "All maintenance work necessary to operate the reactor has been completed and we would not seek to run it if we did not believe it was safe to do so."

A spokesman for the Health and Safety Executive's Nuclear Directorate said: " We are still considering information from the operator in respect of the graphite core safety case and are still in discussion with Oldbury on the date of the next outage period when the reactor is shut down for maintenance."

The station's Reactor 1 has been out of service since August 2006 awaiting similar test results and approval by the NII to restart.