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| APRIL 2023 | UTILITY WEEK
Nuclear
High Viz
Sizewell B back online
Sizewell B has begun generating again
following the completion of an £80 mil-
lion upgrade.
The Suffolk nuclear plant had been
offline since the middle of February for
refuelling and a series of maintenance
works. This included replacing one of the
two rotors responsible for turning the tur-
bine that makes the power, replacing one
of the four reactor coolant pumps inside
the plant's dome, and routine servicing
of valves and motors.
The outage also enabled a complete
inspection of the primary circuit of pipes
for any signs of stress corrosion cracking.
The plant will now continue generat-
ing for a further 18 months without any
planned outages.
EDF is looking at extending the oper-
ational life of Sizewell B by at least 20
years, from 2035 to 2055 with £300 mil-
lion of investment planned.
The government's Energy Security
Strategy, published in April 2022, envis-
ages a significant acceleration of new
nuclear in the UK, with an ambition of up
to 24GW by 2050 to come from this source
of power. In total, this would cover
around 25% of the country's projected
electricity needs.
Last year, energy secretary Grant
Shapps confirmed that the government
will take a £679 million stake in the pro-
posed Sizewell C nuclear plant, which
will be located next to Sizewell B. EDF
will also provide additional investment to
match the government's stake with both
working to attract new third-party invest-
ment to help finance the 3.2GW project's
construction and operation.
