A fire at the Sizewell B nuclear plant in Suffolk was brought under control after around 40 firefighters spent nearly seven hours tackling it.

The fire broke out shortly before 9.00pm on Saturday night in a building housing a charcoal absorber which is used to filter out gases. Eight crews from Suffolk Fire and Rescue worked with the plant’s emergency response team to flood the absorber and they extinguished the fire soon after 3.30am.

The fire did not involve any radioactive material, according to Suffolk Fire and Rescue

Sizewell B is currently not operational and is undergoing repair and maintenance work and is due to go back into service in September.

Jim Crawford, British Energy’s station director for the plant, said: “At no time was there any risk to the public and all staff were safely accounted for and nobody has been hurt.

“Our community liaison officer has proactively been in touch with our contacts in the community to reassure them that the incident was safely managed in line with our well rehearsed emergency plans.”

British Energy - part of EDF Energy - said the event has been provisionally categorised at level ‘0’ on International Nuclear Event Scale as of ‘no safety significance’.