United Kingdom

Nuclear Power in the United Kingdom generates a fifth of the country's electricity (19.26% in 2004). The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate oversee all nuclear power installations and, as of 2006, the United Kingdom operates 24 nuclear reactors. The country also uses nuclear reprocessing plants, such as Sellafield.

A number of stations have been closed, and others are scheduled to follow. The two remaining Magnox nuclear stations and four of the seven AGR nuclear stations are currently planned to be closed by 2015. This is a cause behind the UK's forecast 'energy gap', though secondary to the reduction in coal generating capacity. However the oldest AGR nuclear power station was recently life-extended by ten years, and it is likely many of the others can be life-extended, significantly reducing the energy gap.

All UK nuclear installations in the UK are overseen by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate.

Although the Government of the United Kingdom has recently given the go-ahead for a new generation of nuclear power stations to be built, the Scottish Government, with the backing of the Scottish Parliament, has made clear that Scotland will have no new nuclear power stations and is aiming instead for a non-nuclear future. As of 2007, there have been some significant developments towards nuclear fusion being implemented to solve the predicted energy crisis, most significantly and recently the drawing-up of plans to build one fusion power station, that will 'supply power to the National Grid within 20 years.' The JET facility at Culham, Oxfordshire indicates that Britain has both the industry and workforce for nuclear fusion.

In January 2009, British Energy was bought for approximately £12 billion by EDF Energy (a subsidiary of Electricite de France (EdF) SA)

Operating nuclear power stations

Power Station	Type	Net MWe	Est closure
Oldbury	Magnox
Wylfa	Magnox
Dungeness B	AGR
Hinkley Point B	AGR
Hunterston B	AGR
Hartlepool	AGR
Heysham 1	AGR
Heysham 2	AGR
Torness	AGR
Sizewell B	PWR

Since 2006 Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B have been restricted to about 70% of normal MWe output because of boiler-related problems requiring that they operate at reduced boiler temperatures. This output restriction is likely to remain until closure.

Non-operating nuclear power stations

Power Station	Type	Net MWe	Est closure
Oldbury	Magnox
Wylfa	Magnox
Dungeness B	Magnox
Hinkley Point B	Magnox
Hunterston B	Magnox
Hartlepool	Magnox
Heysham 1	Magnox
Heysham 2	Magnox
Torness	Magnox

A number of research and development reactors also produced some power for the grid, including two Winfrith reactors, two Dounreay fast reactors, and the prototype Windscale Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor.

Дата добавления: 2015-05-31