Two British nuclear power stations have been given further one-year extensions in a move securing more than 1,000 jobs for longer.<\/p>\n
Heysham 1 in Lancashire and Hartlepool in Teesside \u2013 majority-owned and run by French firm EDF Energy \u2013 are now expected to generate electricity until March 2028, one year later than previously expected.<\/p>\n
EDF said the decision was taken after a series of positive graphite inspections at both stations over the past nine months.<\/p>\n
British Gas owner Centrica, which has a 20% share in the two stations, hailed the decision as \u201cgreat news\u201d.<\/p>\n
The two stations provide enough electricity to power more than four million homes a year.<\/p>\n
There is no change to the March 2030 closure date for EDF\u2019s other two UK generating advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) stations \u2013 Heysham 2 and Torness \u2013 which were announced in December last year.<\/p>\n
Mark Hartley, managing director of EDF\u2019s nuclear operations business, said: \u201cExtending the life of these stations makes sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt secures employment for longer for more than 1,000 people who work at those sites and it supports the UK\u2019s ambitions to have a clean, secure electricity supply.<\/p>\n
\u201cA further year of operation for these two stations has the potential to power more than four million homes and reduce the need for imported gas.\u201d<\/p>\n
It follows previous one-year extensions for all four of EDF\u2019s UK AGR sites, which had been announced in December 2024.<\/p>\n
Chris O\u2019Shea, chief executive of Centrica, welcomed the announcement.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe UK needs more reliable, affordable, zero-carbon electricity, so the extension of Heysham 1 and Hartlepool is great news.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe in having a diversified energy system, with nuclear power playing a key role in ensuring stability and sustainability for decades to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur longstanding involvement in the UK nuclear industry is an investment in Britain\u2019s energy independence and thousands of high-quality jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The announcement comes after the Government recently signed the final investment decision for the new Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk.<\/p>\n
The Government will become the biggest equity shareholder in the project with a 44.9% stake while Centrica will invest \u00a31.3 billion for a 15% stake in the station and EDF will take a 12.5% stake.<\/p>\n
Other investors in Sizewell C include Canadian investment fund La Caisse with 20% and Amber Infrastructure with an initial 7.6%.<\/p>\n
The new Sizewell C station is set to provide zero-carbon power to the UK for at least the next 60 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two British nuclear power stations have been given further one-year extensions in a move securing more than 1,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,1340,135582,135583,393,4884,39804,1144,1303,30511,135581,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-391339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-britain","tag-british-gas","tag-centrica","tag-edf-energy","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-hartlepool","tag-northern-ireland","tag-nuclear-power","tag-nuclear-power-plant","tag-nuclear-power-stations","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115133578223616238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}