UK: Blackouts after Sizewell shutdown

Hundreds of thousands of homes suffered power cuts after a fault caused an unplanned shutdown at the Sizewell B nuclear power plant in Suffolk.

Homes and businesses in London, East Anglia, Cheshire and Merseyside were affected between 1100 BST and 1300 BST.

The shutdown cut off supplies to the National Grid within minutes of another plant – the coal-fired Longannet power station in Fife – going offline.

A National Grid spokesman said normal service was expected on Wednesday.

He said: “We think it will be a case of business as usual again tomorrow. We have a very robust system in the UK, it rarely fails and that’s why everybody is talking about it so much.”

BBC