Sizewell B brought offline for refuelling and maintenance work – major boost to local supply chain

By Marjorie Barnes | Published on 16 April 2021 | 2 min read

Sizewell B will be brought offline for routine maintenance and refuelling work this week delivering a major boost to the local supply chain.

Power station workers will complete 8,000 routine maintenance and inspection tasks and replace a third of the fuel during the six week outage which takes place every 18months.

Major work during this period includes maintenance of one of the steam turbines and generators, and routine servicing of valves, pumps, and motors and a full suite of testing to recommission the station and supply clean electricity for 2.5million people for another operating cycle.

Robert Gunn, Sizewell B Station Director, said: “Whilst we will carry out thousands of tasks and the planned refuelling work at the station we have reduced the scope of work to limit the number of workers we need because of the pandemic.  However, we have still been able to let local contracts and will remain focused on the important maintenance tasks that keep Sizewell B operating at the world class standard that is expected.”

Harry Webb of Webb Engineering in Suffolk said: “Working with Sizewell is really important for us as a local family run engineering business.  My Granddad and my Dad set up H W Webb Engineering in Woodton and I joined the company 8 years ago and over that time have worked closely with many of the Sizewell engineers on various projects.

“We employ 11 local people so contracts like this during the refuelling outage are a real boost for us alongside the other work we do for Sizewell B throughout the year. We are proud to have supported the power stations at Sizewell and hope to carry on the tradition and work alongside Sizewell C too.”

 

Posted by Marjorie Barnes

The Sizewell C comms team brings you news, updates, blogs and information on the Sizewell C project.