OLDBURY Power Station has been given the green light to restart its second reactor for the site's final two years of generating power.

Bosses at the nuclear power plant have announced that permission has been granted by industry inspectors to restart Reactor One.

Oldbury Power Station was due to shut down at the end of last year, with the potential loss of more than 450 jobs, however, the site is now expected to continue to power the nation into 2010.

Joe Lamonby, Oldbury's site director, said: "Having previously secured the future operation of Reactor Two in 2008, we are very pleased that our regulators, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, (NII) have granted us permission to re-start Reactor One.

"Working with our customer the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), a considerable amount of work has already been completed on site to ensure the reactor is ready to restart.

"This includes a successful readiness review and work on the reactor and supporting equipment, as well as extensive sampling, testing and channel viewing of the graphite core."

To secure the restarting of the 40-year-old reactor, experts have carried out detailed camera inspections on more than 1,000 of its 3,308 fuel channels.

Mr Lamonby added: "Safety is always our number one priority and the NII would not have allowed us to restart unless they were totally satisfied with our safety case.

"The time we have taken over this investigation is testament to the thorough case that we have prepared and extensive analysis of the integrity of the core has demonstrated the reactor is safe."

Richard Waite, acting chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which owns the Oldbury site, said: "This is good news for UK plc, generating much needed electricity from a low carbon source while at the same time generating income to support our decommissioning mission."

The announcement comes as energy giant E.ON started a public consultation on the future of nuclear power at Oldbury and the possibility of a second power station.