A decision taken (3 December) by EDF will see the lifetimes of all four generating Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor stations extended.
The Heysham nuclear power stations are operated by EDF Energy in Heysham, Lancashire, England. On the site two separate nuclear power stations, Heysham 1 and Heysham 2 operate independently, only with joint entry protocol, both with two reactors of the advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) type. In 2010, the British government announced that Heysham was one of the eight sites it considered suitable for future nuclear power stations. On 1 August 2016, Heysham 2's Unit 8 broke the world record for longest continuous operation of a nuclear power reactor without a shutdown. This record-breaking run exceeds the previous record of 894 days set by Pickering Nuclear Generating Station's Unit 7 (Lake Ontario, Canada) in 1994. The reactor had generated 13.5 TWh of electricity so far during this continuous operation, taking its lifetime generation to 115.46 TWh.
A decision taken (3 December) by EDF will see the lifetimes of all four generating Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor stations extended.
Heysham 2 power station is on track to become the UK’s most productive nuclear power station after hitting a significant generation milestone.