A national Nuclear Centre of Excellence has been proposed for Suffolk to maximise the nuclear energy opportunities in the East of England.
GENERATE is a partnership of regional business and political leaders which was founded to showcase the significant inward investment and supply chain growth opportunities arising from energy projects and generation across Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk.
The Nuclear Prospectus proposes the development of a nuclear operations and maintenance Centre of Excellence, thereby placing the East of England as a leader in existing and future nuclear generation technologies across the UK and Europe.
It is expected that the East of England’s nuclear projects will generate 4.4GW of low-carbon baseload electricity; enough to power 8.5 million UK homes. A Centre of Excellence, located in Suffolk, could serve as the national hub for outage coordination, innovation, skills, and export development, centred around the county’s three operational reactors.
Councillor Richard Rout, Suffolk County Council’s cabinet member for devolution, local government reorganisation and Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), said: “GENERATE wants to make sure that the East of England’s nuclear capabilities and ambitions are heard in Westminster whilst highlighting the potential for inward investment and growth.”
“This can be a unique opportunity for Ipswich, Suffolk, and the wider region. It is vital to ensure that the tangible economic benefits associated with the construction of a major project are sustained into the operational phase, historically this has not always been the case.”
For context, the three reactors across the sites at Sizewell B and C will need partial refuelling every 18 months, resulting in an outage of one reactor every six months. Currently, each outage at Sizewell B brings up to 1,000 additional staff and specialist contractors to the region.
Robert Gunn, station director of EDF’s Sizewell B power station, said: “As one of the country’s biggest power producers, and an employer of almost 1,000 people on our site, we know just how important consistent operation and high-quality maintenance is to sustain vital plants like ours.
“Creation of this facility will be another positive step for the regional skills base. As the area becomes the nation’s nuclear cornerstone, a centre like this will ensure more skilled jobs coming from this industry and into this region. And that is something we will all benefit from.”
Nigel Cann, Sizewell C’s chief executive, said: “Sizewell C is a natural catalyst for positive investment in Suffolk and the wider region. We are proud to work collaboratively with local partners to grow the skills needed to build, operate and maintain the power station.
“By creating new training pathways and long-term career opportunities, we aim to strengthen the county’s economic future and ensure that the benefits of Sizewell C are felt by communities for generations to come.”
Image: Suffolk County Council
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