Nuclear power plants in United Kingdom (view) Active plants Cancelled plants Closed plants Under construction Planned plants
Nuclear power in the United Kingdom generated 16.1% of the country's electricity in 2020.[1] As of August 2022[update], the UK has 9 operational nuclear reactors at five locations (8 advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGR) and one pressurised water reactor (PWR)), producing 5.9GWe.[2]
It also has nuclear reprocessing plants at Sellafield and the Tails Management Facility (TMF) operated by Urenco in Capenhurst.
The United Kingdom established the world's first civil nuclear programme,[3] opening a nuclear power station, Calder Hall at Windscale, England, in 1956. The British installed base of nuclear reactors used to be dominated by domestically developed Magnox and their successor AGR reactors with graphite moderator and CO2 coolant but the last of those are nearing the end of their useful life and will be replaced with "international" pressurised water reactors. At the peak in 1997, 26% of the nation's electricity was generated from nuclear power. Since then several reactors have closed and by 2012 the share had declined to 19%.[4] The older AGR reactors have been life-extended,[5][6] but they are now towards the end of their life.
In October 2010, the Cameron–Clegg coalition took forward the previous Labour government's plans[7] for private suppliers to construct up to eight new nuclear power plants.[8] The Scottish Government, with the backing of the Scottish Parliament, has stated that no new nuclear power stations will be constructed in Scotland.[9][10] E.ON UK, RWE npower and Horizon Nuclear Power have been pulling out of their initial plans for developing new nuclear power plants, placing the future of nuclear power in the UK in some doubt. Despite this, EDF Energy is still planning to build four new reactors at two sites, with construction ongoing at Hinkley Point in Somerset.[11][12] In light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the government of Boris Johnson announced a renewed commitment to nuclear power, using the EPR and potentially other PWR designs as well as yet-to-be-developed small modular reactors in a push towards energy independence and decarbonisation while replacing the ageing AGR reactors and phasing out gas and coal for electricity generation. While there is a de facto nuclear power phaseout underway in Scotland and there are plans to replace existing reactors with newly-built ones in England and Wales (sometimes using existing sites for the new reactors), no nuclear power plant has ever been built in Northern Ireland.
EDF Energy owns and manages the five currently operating and two de-fuelling reactor sites.[13] Four new plants are proposed to be built in the next few decades. All nuclear installations in the UK are overseen by the Office for Nuclear Regulation.
^"UK ENERGY IN BRIEF 2021" (PDF). Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. p. 28. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
^"Nuclear Power in the World Today: Updated March 2022". World Nuclear Association. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
^"Osborne hails UK nuclear deal with China as 'new dawn'". FT. 17 October 2013. Archived from the original on 11 December 2022. Retrieved 25 October 2014. the country that built the first civil nuclear power station
^"Nuclear accounts for 19% of UK electricity generation in 2012". Nuclear Engineering International. 25 July 2013. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
^Seawright, Stephen (12 June 2006). "Nuclear stations may stay on line to bridge the gap". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 15 June 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
^Cite error: The named reference nei-20120220 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Blair presses the nuclear button". TheGuardian.com. 17 May 2006.
^Eight new nuclear power stations despite safety and clean-up concerns Telegraph.co.uk 18 October 2010 (accessed 29 March 2011)
^"Answers to your questions on energy in Scotland". The Scottish Government. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
^"Official Report 17 January 2008". The Scottish Parliament. Archived from the original on 20 June 2009. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
^"EDF Energy New Nuclear Build". Retrieved 22 October 2012.
^"National Infrastructure Planning Hinkley Point C". Archived from the original on 19 September 2010. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
^Nuclear capacity in the UK (PDF) (Report). gov.uk. 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
and 28 Related for: Nuclear power in the United Kingdom information
was the last of theUnitedKingdom's second generation nuclearpower plants to be commissioned. Construction of this facility began in 1980 for the then...
Calder Hall NuclearPower Station is a former Magnox nuclearpower station at Sellafield in Cumbria in North West England. Calder Hall was the world's first...
The Sizewell nuclear site consists of two nuclearpower stations, one of which is still operational, located near the small fishing village of Sizewell...
Heysham nuclearpower station is operated by EDF Energy in Heysham, Lancashire, England. The site is divided into two separately-managed nuclearpower stations...
Energy intheUnitedKingdom came mostly from fossil fuels in 2021. Total energy consumption intheUnitedKingdom was 142.0 million tonnes of oil equivalent...
The Dungeness nuclearpower stations are a pair of non-operational nuclearpower stations located on the Dungeness headland inthe south of Kent, England...
produced through the use of two advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGR). Hartlepool was only the third nuclearpower station intheUnitedKingdom to use AGR technology...
Nuclearpower is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclearpower can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion...
Hinkley Point C nuclearpower station (HPC) is a two-unit, 3,200 MWe EPR nuclearpower station under construction in Somerset, England. The site was one...
Asia. TheUnited States is the largest producer of nuclearpower, while France has the largest share of electricity generated by nuclearpower, at about...
Chapelcross nuclearpower station is a former Magnox nuclearpower station undergoing decommissioning. It is located in Annan in Dumfries and Galloway in southwest...
A nuclearpower plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is...
January 2008 announced the go-ahead for new nuclearpower stations to be built across theUnitedKingdom. In response, Scotland's then First Minister Alex...
Sizewell C nuclearpower station is a project to construct a 3,200 MWe nuclearpower station with two EPR reactors in Suffolk, England. The project was...
Berkeley nuclearpower station is a former Magnox nuclearpower station situated on the bank of the River Severn in Gloucestershire, England. The ongoing...
nuclearpower station is a Magnox nuclearpower station undergoing decommissioning. It is located on the south bank of the River Severn close to the village...
Rajasthan Tarapur Nuclearpower is the fifth-largest source of electricity in India after coal, gas, hydroelectricity and wind power. As of November 2020[update]...
A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages...
and security at any relevant nuclear site and for security of nuclear materials in transit within theUnitedKingdom. The force has over 1,500 police officers...
in 1954, the authority was responsible for theUnitedKingdom's entire nuclear programme, both civil and defence, as well as the policing of nuclear sites...
all the commercial nuclear reactors inthe European Union and in Europe, with operational status. The list only includes civilian nuclearpower reactors...
Chashma Nilore Karachi In Pakistan, nuclearpower is provided by six commercial nuclearpower plants with a net capacity of 3,262 megawatts (3.262 GW)...
of nuclearpower as realized through the first artificial fission of atoms that would lead to the Manhattan Project and, eventually, to using nuclear fission...