Heysham nuclear power station

Heysham nuclear power station
Heysham nuclear power station
	Heysham 1 & 2
Country	England
Location	Heysham, Lancashire
Coordinates	54°1′44″N 2°54′58″W / 54.02889°N 2.91611°W
Status	Operational
Construction began	Unit A-1: 1 December 1970; Unit A-2: 1 December 1970; Unit B-1: 1 August 1980; Unit B-2: 1 August 1980;
Commission date	Unit A-1: 9 July 1983; Unit A-2: 11 October 1984; Unit B-1: 12 July 1988; Unit B-2: 11 November 1988;
Decommission date	Heysham 1: March 2027; Heysham 2: March 2030; (planned)
Owner	EDF Energy
Operator	EDF Energy
Nuclear power station
Reactors	4 (Units A-1 and A-2 in Heysham 1, Units B-1 and B-2 in Heysham 2)
Reactor type	GCR - AGR
Thermal power station
Primary fuel	Uranium dioxide
Cooling source	Carbon dioxide
Thermal capacity	2 × 1500 MWt (Heysham 1); 2 × 1550 MWt (Heysham 2);
Power generation
Units operational	1 × 485 MWe (Unit A-1 in Heysham 1); 1 × 575 MWe (Unit A-2 in Heysham 1) ; 2 × 620 MWe (Heysham 2);
Nameplate capacity	2,452 MWe (Total)
Capacity factor	Lifetime: (As of the end of 2021); Unit A-1: 67.2%; Unit A-2: 66.3%; Unit B-1: 78.1%; Unit B-2: 77.4%;
Annual net output	2021:; 5,760.93 GWh (20,739.3 TJ) (Heysham 1); 5,787.26 GWh (20,834.1 TJ) (Heysham 2); 11,548.19 GWh (41,573.5 TJ) (Total);
External links
Website	Heysham 1 nuclear power station and visitor centre \| EDF; Heysham 2 nuclear power station and visitor centre \| EDF;
Commons	Related media on Commons
	; grid reference SD4000459632

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.

In December 2024, EDF, the owner and operator of the plant declared a life extension of 1 year for Heysham 1 and of 2 years for Heysham 2. They will now operate until 2027 and 2030 respectively.