BOTH reactors at Oldbury Power Station will keep generating electricity until the summer.

Magnox, which runs the 40-year-old station, has announced that industry regulators have approved an application for Reactor 2 to keep going until June this year, in line with Reactor 1 Reactor 2 was supposed to shut down this month but the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII), which monitors the site, has decided it is safe enough for the reactor to keep going that bit longer.

Oldbury Power Station was due to shut down completely in late 2008 but Magnox has been able to extend its lifetime for more than two years, maintaining the 460 jobs on site.

Phil Sprague, Oldbury site director, said: "As a result of excellent operation and maintenance by our experienced staff the plant and equipment are in very good condition.

"We have worked hard with each of our regulators and they have no objection to extended generation on Reactor 2.

"We are pleased that this work has been successful and that we will continue to contribute to the country’s electricity supply as we have done for over 40 years."

On average Oldbury Power Station produces 435MW of electricity a day, enough to power a city one-and-a-half times the size of Bristol.

Magnox has previously said it wants to extend Oldbury’s operational lifetime even further until mid-2012 for at least one of the site’s reactors.

Oldbury received its last delivery of fuel in October last year, but site bosses believe that there will be enough fuel left on site after June to keep one of the reactors going.

This extension could protect the 460 members of staff. When Oldbury finally stops generating power staff levels will be reduced to between approximately 330 and 380, though a final figure is yet to be decided.