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A reactor at EDF’s Heysham 2 power station in Lancashire has been shut down and the plant’s 750-strong workforce doubled as part of a £25 million maintenance programme.
The reactor was shutdown on Friday (31 January) and will remain turned off for two months.
The planned shutdown is part of the company’s wider annual maintenance programme which sees more than £500 million invested in its eight existing nuclear power stations across the UK.
In total, EDF’s stations provide up to 20 per cent of the country’s power each year.
Work on Heysham includes replacing gas circulators, which help cool the reactor, and also replacing some of the site’s turbines.
EDF says both reactors generate enough low carbon electricity to power around 2 million homes, saving around eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Mark Lees, station director at Heysham 2, said: “As engineers we look forward to getting our hands on the plant to safely carry out maintenance and inspections.
“The shutdowns, which take around two years to plan, allow us to get into places we can’t when we are operating – including inside the reactor itself.
“But these things do not happen without lots of planning, investment and total commitment from a very professional team of people here at Heysham 2.”
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