In the past 18 months , there has been a huge recruitment drive with more than 100 new faces joining the team .
FEATURE
Expanding – more than 500 EDF staff and 200 fulltime contract partners call Hartlepool Power Station their place of work .
Culture – staff focus relentlessly on the safety of their job , their team and everyone at work .
PICTURES : CHRIS BOOTH
In the past 18 months , there has been a huge recruitment drive with more than 100 new faces joining the team .
Hartlepool Power Station was operated by the Central Electricity Generating Board when it opened in 1983 . In 2009 , EDF bought the nation ’ s nuclear fleet and immediately set about investing in the infrastructure to keep the plant performing well , and in the people who deliver that high-quality performance .
At that point this power station was due to stop generating in 2014 . But thanks to the skilled engineering teams at EDF , the turbines at Hartlepool will keep turning until 2026 – with ambitions to run for even longer .
More than 500 EDF staff and 200 full-time contract partners call Hartlepool Power Station their place of work , and many of those live close by . And the station isn ’ t stopping there . In the past 18 months there has been a huge recruitment drive with more than 100 new faces joining the team .
Furthermore , Hartlepool Power Station is forward-looking and ensuring the jobs pipeline has the teams of the future lined up . To secure this , it runs a lively and busy apprenticeship programme . Since 2023 the team has recruited 11 maintenance apprentices and signed up two degree apprentices and six graduates .
Many people who join Hartlepool Power Station stay for decades . Retirements after 40 years are not uncommon and , with people staying at the station so long , it has a genuine nuclear family feel . That ’ s no surprise as the power plant employs parents and their children – and even has grandchildren now training in new roles .
As well as high-quality training , everyone joining EDF gets something that money can ’ t buy – preparation to work in an industry with a safety culture like no other .
It ’ s often said nuclear is special and that is absolutely the case when it comes to safety . All staff focus relentlessly on the safety of their job , of their team and everyone at work . This instilling of a safety culture is deeply ingrained in the power station . It is something that has been worked on and built up over years . It cannot be developed overnight .
When the time does come for Hartlepool to finish generating electricity , the next chapter of the station ’ s already incredible journey will begin . End-ofgeneration at Hartlepool will not mean end of life for the station – far from it .
Instead of generating electricity there will be decades of highly skilled work to be completed , initially defueling the reactors and then decommissioning the site .
There ’ s also the prospect of a new reactor coming to Hartlepool after the town was identified as one of the best spots for the next generation of a new type of nuclear .
Because of this the site has , in the past few years , hosted politicians of all stripes and nuclear developers keen to find out more . That isn ’ t a surprise given Hartlepool has a connection to the National Grid , a supportive community , a highly skilled nuclear workforce and land ripe for new nuclear .
Hartlepool Power Station has played an enormous part in the nation ’ s nuclear story so far and it has contributed to the vitality and economic productivity of the Tees Valley for more than 50 years .
There ’ s still more to come , but when you consider what has been quietly done in that large , unassuming box since 1983 , it really is quite the Tees-built success story .
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