Year 12 Visit Sizewell B
Year 12 students travelled to Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station on Wednesday 16 March, taking in an informative tour, enabling them to see nuclear energy in action.
John shares his experience of and thoughts on the day, below.
Year 12’s John
26 enthusiastic Sixth Formers travelled to Sizewell B with Dr Law, to take a tour around the nuclear power plant. We arrived and enjoyed a presentation on how the nuclear plant operates from some friendly employees; we were also briefed on the safety procedures within the plant. We then toured around the plant in groups of five or six, I particularly enjoyed seeing the water cooling system, and was shocked to discover around three million litres of water was used per minute to help condense the steam exiting the turbines.
Another thing that I enjoyed on the trip was learning from one of the guides about the radiation in and around Sizewell B. It was encouraging to hear that within the plant the radiation level was only slightly higher than regular background radiation, and that just being in a different part of the country such as Cornwall would expose you to a higher radiation level (but still well within safe limits). This was nice to learn, as while I was aware of the safety of nuclear power plants, I didn’t know that there were such negligible effects.
Finally, it was encouraging to learn about the large economic benefit Sizewell B brings to our community – £40 million a year! Hopefully, Sizewell C will do the same in the years ahead.
In summary, I greatly enjoyed this trip, and found it very informative and exciting, and would recommend it to current Year 11s for next year.
