SIZEWELL B nuclear power station has been brought back on line after a refuelling outage.

An extra 1,200 specialist workers were on site for the work.

Some 14,000 tasks were also completed in addition to refuelling the reactor.

Key achievements included the safe replacement of 74 heaters in the pressuriser.

The station’s protection and back up systems were also fully tested “end to end” in readiness for return to power.

Further work was carried out by a specialist team of engineers from France who were brought in to replace the internal equipment in the reactor coolant pump, another key part of the site.

Completion of such maintenance tasks helps to ensure continuous delivery of power to more than two million homes and businesses until the next planned refuelling outage in 2013.

Jim Crawford, Sizewell B station director, said: “The work our staff and contracting partners have safely achieved during this outage is outstanding.

“We committed to replace the heaters in our pressuriser within the next two refuelling outages but have safely accomplished this during just one.”

The power station is brought offline to refuel every 18 months and staff take the opportunity to carry out a number of maintenance projects on the site at the same time.