£25m ‘MOT’ for Heysham 2 power station reactor will boost economy and create jobs

Operators at the EDF site have taken one of the station’s two reactors offline on to carry out a major maintenance programme worth more than £25 million.

This planned 74-day outage is like an MOT for the unit, allowing work to be carried out that cannot take place while the reactor is at power.

It is a statutory requirement to carry out a maintenance outage every three years to allow continued generation of zero carbon electricity from the reactor.

More than 800 extra workers will join the 750 strong workforce for the maintenance period, which is known as a “statutory outage”.

EDF carries out a statutory outage on each of its reactors every three years.

These are planned in advance with the National Grid to ensure that there is no impact on the national electricity supply.

The other reactor at Heysham 2 and the two units at Heysham 1 are due to continue operating normally throughout the period.

During the outage workers will carry out more than 13,000 separate pieces of work – each carefully planned during the last two years of preparation.

The biggest projects include gas circulator exchanges, turbine low-pressure stage rotor replacement, and graphite inspections.

Station Director, John Sandford, said: “Heysham 2 marks its 35th year of generation this year and this will be the station’s 24th statutory outage, so we are very well practised at them.

"When EDF took over the operation of Heysham 2 it was due to stop generating in March 2023 so it is clear the continued investment in these outages, along with the hard work of the team here, have been vital in supporting continued generation at the site.

“Over the years, we have also built great relationships with the extra workers who come and support us during the outages.

"These workers will be staying in local hotels and B&Bs, eating in the area’s restaurants and using taxi firms. I

"It is great that our investment in the power station can also benefit our local community.”