Residents woken by 'deafening' midnight banging noise from Heysham nuclear power station
Residents were alarmed by a ‘deafening’ noise coming from Heysham’s nuclear power station last night.
Dozens took to Facebook after loud ‘hammering’ sounds were heard in the area between 11.30pm and the early hours of the morning.
One resident recorded the noise from two miles away on his phone and shared it to a local Facebook group.
He said: “What on earth is going on at the power station tonight!? What a racket. Never heard it this loud before.”
“It’s so loud! I use earplugs and it still woke me up,” said another resident. Why would they do this at night?”
“It's been a long night with little sleep and two scared dogs,” added another resident. “I don't ever remember it being quite so loud.”
What caused the noise?
EDF, who operate Heysham Power Station, said there was nothing to worry about and the noise was due to a reactor being brought back online.
An EDF spokesperson said: "In the early hours of this morning (Tuesday, March 17), while restarting one of the reactors at Heysham 2, one of the station’s steam systems made some noise that could be heard by local residents.
“Steam releases are normal during start‑up operations and can sometimes create noise. On this occasion, the noise was exacerbated by a control valve that did not operate as planned.
“The reactor was safely returned to service at around 11am this morning after our teams worked to rectify the issue.
“We do not anticipate any further noise from the site now that the unit has been synchronised to the National Grid."
“We would like to apologise to our local residents for the disturbance overnight and for any concern this may have caused. We remain committed to being a considerate neighbour to our community."