Dungeness B Site Stakeholder Group Report October 2020

By EDF | Posted October 23, 2020

Station Director’s Message – October 2020

It has been an extremely busy period at Dungeness B since June.

As I reported at the last meeting, EDF and Team Dungeness have transformed the way we work to reflect these unusual times. We distance where we can, where we can’t we take extra precautions to protect one another and we have built Covid-19 considerations into everything our staff do.

As part of our precautions we continue to tightly control access to our site, we have invested in thermographic cameras to check the temperatures of staff as they arrive for work and we have even purchased a Covid-19 testing machine so we can carry out high speed tests if we suspect someone is coming down with the illness.

To date we have carefully managed the situation at Dungeness so we can all keep working. But we are well aware that the situation is changing again, even as I write this cases are again rising in parts of Kent. We will, as you’d expect, continue to monitor the situation carefully and if we need to further increase protection at Dungeness B, we will.

Despite everything going on at the moment we have made major progress towards restarting our reactors. As you know when the station went off on a double outage in 2018 we quickly identified issues with our main steam line and have also worked through issues to do with environmental corrosion across the site.

Over the summer we received positive news from the regulator for our work on remediating these issues – this is a tremendous milestone for us and to do so during these extraordinary times is further demonstration of the dedication of all those working to bring Dungeness B back.

Work continues with the ONR on the final permissions to return our reactors to service.

This period continues to be one of the station’s busiest periods of maintenance for many years, with employees and specialist contractors carrying out a huge amount of technical tasks.

We have recently finished all physical works to return the reactors to service and are completing work on our safety cases. In the coming weeks, as part of our return to service works, we will warm up the reactors. All of the work that is happening must be underpinned by a comprehensive safety case that demonstrates the station’s ability to produce safe, reliable generation. A safety case analyses all possible scenarios and demonstrates that all defects have been removed, these cases are now going through EDF's internal processes and will then be reviewed by the ONR. Our reactors will only be returned to service when we are satisfied that it is safe to do so. Our restart dates are Feb 15 for reactor 22 and Feb 25 for reactor 21.

Environmental events

Since the last report to the SSG in June, there have been two occasions on which the site breached permitted discharge limits for releases of chlorine to water. On each occasion the chlorine level was low and there was no environmental impact. The regulator has been informed.

Safety

We measure our safety performance against Industry top tier indicators, including nuclear reportable events, environmental events and staff and contract-partner recordable injuries. There have been no lost time events recorded at Dungeness B since our report in June.

Community relations

Earlier this year, due to the spread of Covid-19, EDF took the decision to close the Dungeness Visitor Centre and stop site tours. When circumstances allow, we will reopen the Visitor Centre to the public, but at this time, we do not expect that to be before early 2021.

In May, Dungeness B was delighted to support the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway’s first ever, virtual gala. During the day virtual attendees could watch some of the railway’s vehicles take particular trips along the tracks, enjoy Q&A sessions with key staff and take part in competitions. Dungeness B has long supported the railway and provided ‘virtual fuel’ for the day.

John Benn

Station Director

October 2020

For more information

Dungeness B Power Station, Romney Marsh, Kent TN29 9PX

Matthew Pardo
External Communications Manager, South East
24-hour press line: 01452 652233
matthew.pardo@edf-energy.com

Alison Prentice
Visitor Centre Co-ordinator
EDF Energy, Generation
T: 01797 343728
alison.prentice@edf-energy.com

Rebecca Cavanagh
Communications Officer
EDF Energy, Generation
T: 01797 343 629
rebecca.cavanagh@edf-energy.com