THE owner of the region's only nuclear power station yesterday reported a 12 per cent slump in profits as problems at two of its plants continued to affect output.

British Energy, which operates Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station, unveiled underlying earnings of £253m in the three months to July 1, compared with £289m a year earlier.

The decline in profitability came despite the company's ability to sell electricity at prices considerably higher than current market prices.

Total output for the period was 13.8 terawatt hours (TWh), down from 17TWh a year earlier, after boiler problems identified last summer at Hinkley Point B, in Somerset, and Hunterston B, in Ayreshire.

They returned to service in May, but output is still being affected by load restrictions and fine-tuning.

The outages at the two sites have already cost British Energy 2.6TWh of electricity in the first quarter of the year, on top of the 9.2TWh lost in the year to March 31.

British Energy said the performance of the remainder of its stations had been encouraging, most notably in reducing unplanned stoppages.

The company, which can provide about a fifth of the UK's power needs, runs eight nuclear power stations and one coal-fired site at Eggborough, in Yorkshire.

Chief executive Bill Coley said: "I am encouraged by the performance of the fleet and improvement in the level of unplanned losses. We continue to work hard to deliver reliable output from Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B, while seeking to maintain the performance seen across the fleet for the rest of the year."

A decision on whether to extend the life of Hinkley Point and Hunterston will be made by the end of March.