A major £75 million overhaul of the Sizewell B nuclear power station has begun, offering a significant boost to the Suffolk economy.

Every 18 months, the plant’s nuclear reactor is taken offline for refuelling and maintenance aimed at enhancing operational efficiency. On October 11, the reactor was shut down for the latest round of work, which is expected to take around two months.

Sizewell B generates enough zero-carbon electricity each year to power over 2.5 million homes, and this latest investment will ensure the plant continues to meet energy demands while supporting local jobs and businesses during the project.

Robert Gunn, Station Director at Sizewell B said: "These outage periods are tremendously important for us. They allow us to examine our plant in a way we can’t do when we are generating and they give us the chance to complete major improvement projects.

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"Beyond this they are important for the Suffolk economy. When we undertake an outage we need help from hundreds of external contractors who then live, shop and eat locally while the work is ongoing.

"During this outage we will bring in more than 1000 extra staff to deliver more than 12,000 tasks.

"This brings in millions of pounds of extra income to our area's hotels, restaurants and shops. And it doesn't stop there, we also use local companies to complete work for us. This time, for example, Bungay based precision machining solutions firm Webb Engineering will be helping us complete these works."

Sizewell B started generating electricity in 1995 and has generated over 258 terrawatt hours of electricity (TWh) – that's enough to meet the electric needs of every home in Suffolk for more than 190 years.

EDF acquired all eight power stations in the UK nuclear fleet in 2009 and, since then, has invested around £1.2bn in Sizewell B to maintain reliability and ongoing zero-carbon electricity generation.