Nuclear power plant refuels at record speed

The Sizewell B nuclear reactor has set a new record for the speed with which it was refuelled. Approximately every eighteen months the nuclear reactor has to be closed down so that the used uranium fuel can be emptied and fresh fuel put in. Maintenance and repair work are also done concurrently.

Whenever the nuclear reactor is out of service for a single day, about seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds in power sales are lost by British Energy.

Before the latest refuelling exercise the Sizewell B nuclear reactor had been in continuous operation for five hundred and sixteen days. The reactor generates electricity which is equivalent to the consumption of two million households.

During the refuelling exercise over seven hundred contracting employees were at the site besides the five hundred and twenty five employees who are the regular employees at the Sizewell B nuclear reactor.

The station director of Sizewell B nuclear reactor, Brian Dowds, revealed that the exercise had taken team spirit to accomplish. He further added that they would now be able to concentrate exclusively on safely meeting about three per cent of the electricity requirements in the United Kingdom before the next refuelling in about another eighteen months.

The Sizewell B nuclear reactor recently got recognition for possessing enhanced safety measures. The employees of British Energy at Sizewell B have done exceedingly well in keeping accidents at bay and therefore keeping the time lost to a bare minimum. The last ‘lost time accident’ for instance was six hundred and seventy nine days ago.

www.british-energy.com