An emergency response centre is set to be built at Suffolk’s Sizewell B power plant, to be used in the event of a disaster.
As part of EDF Energy’s Japanese Earthquake Response (JER) Programme work, to further enhance safety margins, the purchasing of back-up equipment has begun to provide additional support to a station response, enhancing a station’s capability to recover during and after an extreme natural event.
At Sizewell B, EDF Energy is proposing to build an Emergency Response Centre (ERC) on the Railhead site to the east of Leiston to incorporate this back-up plant and equipment storage and to provide office space associated with EDF Energy’s enhanced emergency arrangements for Sizewell B.
The provisional timescale for the project is as follows:
- Spring 2012: Design development
- May 2012: Informal public consultation
- Mid June2012: Planning application submitted
- June/July 2012: Statutory public consultation
- October 2012: Planning application decision
- January 2013: Planned construction starts
- Spring 2014: Fully operational
Martin Cubitt, Technical and Safety Manager at Sizewell B said: “Safety is, and always has been our overriding priority. However as a responsible operator, we recognise that we cannot be complacent. Although our record and the recent reviews all show how safe Sizewell B power station is, we feel it is prudent to invest in providing an additional layer of resilience to our emergency response capabilities.”
A public consultation was opened at Leiston last night, where visitors can see the plans and offer feedback on the proposed site. Find out more and have your say about theproposed emergency response centreat Sizewell B.
