Sizewell is a small fishing village with a few holiday homes, just north of the more popular holiday villages of Thorpeness and Aldeburgh on the East Anglian coast, and near Leiston, Suffolk. However the village itself is overshadowed by two separate nuclear power stations, Sizewell A and Sizewell B.

Sizewell A nuclear power station was built in the 1960s and started generation in 1966. It consists of two 1000 MW(th) Magnox reactors, producing a total output of 450 MW(e). The power station is due to start the decommissioning process in 2007, after shutdown in 2006. By 2004, it had produced over 100,000,000,000 MWh of electricity - equivalent to supply the whole of the UK's domestic needs for over half a year.

The Sizewell B nuclear reactor is a pressurised water reactor (PWR) of 1188 MW. It was built between 1988 and 1995. It is readily visible from the nearby holiday beaches.

See also

• List of nuclear reactors

External links

• British Energy website, Sizewell (http://www.british-energy.com/corporate/locations/mn_sizewell.html)