Fire shuts Dungeness B nuclear plant

KENT, ENGLAND - The Dungeness B nuclear plant at Romney Marsh, in Kent, England, has been shut down after a fire broke out late in the night on November 23.

Ten firefighting crews attended a blaze that broke out in the boiler annex around midnight, putting out the fire by 2 a.m. Firefighters remained on-site until the following day, before returning control of the site to British Energy.

The fire meant taking one of the two reactors at the site offline. The other reactor is already offline for scheduled maintenance. All 57 staff were evacuated after the alarm was sounded.

'There was no risk to the public, and there was no release of radioactive material,' said a spokesperson for British Energy. "[Investigators] are looking at the cause of the fire and will be bringing the reactor back online as soon as possible."

When operational, the 1,090-megawatt plant is capable of generating enough electricity to power 1.5 million homes. In June, British Energy admitted that there had been a Level 2 alert at Dungeness B, but claimed that it was not related to the reactors.