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EDF has been given permission to restart generation at its Hinkley Point B nuclear plant in Somerset, nine months after it was taken offline.
The plant has been inactive since June 2020, when generation was paused to inspect the nuclear reactors’ graphite cores.
The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has now given the green light to bring the plant back online.
However, it will cease operation for good in July of next year before moving into the defuelling phase – a process expected to last several years.
EDF said it had invested £3 million upgrading the plant over the past year. It intends to run the two reactors for six months, pause for further inspections and, subject to ONR approval, generate power for a second six-month period.
Peter Evans, station director of Hinkley Point B, said: “Our core purpose at Hinkley Point B is helping Britain achieve net zero and we have been doing this since long before the term net zero arrived.
“The approval to restart power generation, which has come after many months of physical works and technical assessments of our site, plant and nuclear reactors, is really positive news.
“When I look back at the last 12 months it is incredible to think we have delivered a major inspection and maintenance programme and a thorough justification to restart the nuclear reactors, all as we grappled with a pandemic which has fundamentally changed the way we work.
“But we’ve done the work, proved our case and I’m thrilled that we can get back online and once again do what we do best.”
Since being commissioned in 1976, the power plant has generated more than 300TWh of electricity – enough to meet the needs of every home in Britain for around three years. At the time of its acquisition by EDF in 2009, the power station was due to close in 2016.
However, in 2012 the plant received a seven-year life extension to March 2023, plus or minus two years. Despite its closure falling towards the earlier end of the range, EDF said the facility will still end up running for more than 15 years longer than was originally planned back in the 1960s.
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