Visit on Oct 25th 08 causes near disaster at Sizewell B!!!

“I was aware that the water temperature was dropping so I reduced the power requirement to Generator A to bring the system back on line” A remark made by one of our members in the Control Room during a fascinating visit to Sizewell B Training Area on Saturday the 25th of October. It all seemed so very realistic at the time, I for one felt that I was in control of the Power Station. If ignorance is bliss surely this was it.

The NES visit was extremely well structured in that we were first given a detailed introduction to the site by Malcolm Hodges and Steve King.  The introduction, or more to the point,  learning the basics lasted over an hour, was in itself fascinating. Graham knew his subject and was able to get the information across in a very relaxed manner.     Afterwards Graham said that he was pleased to be asked erudite technical questions as opposed to “How do you paint the dome?”or “What would you do if a 747 crashed into the site?”.

After our introduction we were let loose in the small simulator room , when as a team  we learnt how to juggle some of the critical factors in the generating process, water temperature, generator output and core values.  Normally this juggling is managed tolerably well by computer, but for the purpose of our exercise we operated the controls system manually. Much more fun!!

Finally we were shown the Training Control Room proper, identical in every respect to the real one. For obvious reasons we were not allowed to touch anything, but for sheer scale this takes some beating. Frankly I found the Control Room much more interesting than masses of concrete, but that’s a personal view.

Should there be sufficient interest, Ray Hannent who arranged this visit is quite willing to arrange another visit in the not too distance future.  Contact him if you would like to operate the only pressurised water reactor in UK. Plenty more in France, but that’s another story.             
Mike Vincent          October 2008