EDF’s Sizewell B nuclear power plant in Suffolk is going offline this week for a £80 million refuelling and maintenance programme.
On Wednesday, the station’s Turbine Generator 1 was brought offline, followed by Turbine Generator 2 today (17 February) bringing the station officially offline for its 18th refuelling.
Work on the station is scheduled to take 66 days and will include replacing turbine rotors as well as routine servicing of valves, pumps, and motors. The station will undergo a full suite of testing before recommissioning.
“Sizewell B is vital to the ongoing security of low carbon electricity in the UK and outages such as this are key to delivering the reliable power that the station is recognised for,” said Robert Gunn, Sizewell B station director.
At 28 years old, Sizewell B is the youngest nuclear power plant in the UK, and has produced 243TWh since it started operating.
There are 13 nuclear reactors at six plants in the UK, generating around 16% of the country’s electricity in 2020.
Currently there is only one new nuclear plant in the UK under construction, EDF’s Hinkley Point C. At the site in Somerset, the French energy giant is constructing two reactors that will have a capacity of 3.26GWe when complete. It has been hit by numerous delays and cost increases however, with COVID-19 having strained the project.
In November, the UK government confirmed a “historic” £700 million investment in EDF’s proposed new nuclear project Sizewell C. This 3.2GW nuclear plant will also be located in Suffolk.
