Heysham nuclear power plant B2

Name: Heysham nuclear power plant B2
Address: GBR

Gross capacity

680MW

Heysham nuclear power plant B2 is a gas-cooled reactor unit at Heysham nuclear power plant in United Kingdom rated at 680 MW gross. It is operating. Commercial operation began 1 Apr 1989.

Specification

Reactor type	Gas-cooled reactor (GCR)
Model	AGR
Size	Largeabove 300 MWe
Coolant	Carbon dioxide
Moderator	Graphite
Gross capacity	680MW
Net capacity (reference)	620MW
Net capacity (design)	615MW
Thermal output	1,550MWt
NSSS vendor	not on record
Typical enrichment	Natural uranium to 2.5–3.5% U-235

Ownership & location

Site	Heysham nuclear power plant
Unit	B2
Country	United Kingdom
Owner	EDF Energy Ltd100%
Operator	EDF Energy
Coordinates	54.0310, -2.9112

Live status Elexon REMIT, Great Britain, declared availability

State

…

Available capacity

…

Declared: an outage or limit the operator has announced. No outage declared is not a confirmation that the unit is running. See every unit outside the US.

Fuel chain for this unit

Fuel form

Uranium metal (Magnox) or uranium dioxide (AGR)

Enrichment

Natural uranium to 2.5–3.5% U-235 no enrichment required

Who makes this assembly

Westinghouse Electric Company AGR fuel elements

Supply position

United Kingdom runs 8 operating units on AGR fuel. 1 fabricator is documented for it. No documented fabricator is based in United Kingdom. Only one supplier is documented. Country exposure

Upstream

This unit runs on natural uranium, so its fuel chain has no enrichment step at all: mine → mill → conversion → fabrication. That is the shortest fuel chain of any commercial reactor type, and it makes the operator independent of the four organisations that control enrichment worldwide.

Conversion

AEOI Cameco CNNC CNNC CNNC ConverDyn Orano Rosatom TVEL Westinghouse

Fabricator capability is recorded against reactor type and model line, not against named units, utilities do not publish fuel contracts. See the fuel chain.

Timeline

1 Aug 1980Construction start
1 Nov 1988First criticality
11 Nov 1988Grid connection
1 Apr 1989Commercial operation

Other units at Heysham nuclear power plant

Unit	Status	Gross MW
Heysham nuclear power plant A1	Operating	625
Heysham nuclear power plant A2	Operating	625
Heysham nuclear power plant B1	Operating	680

Other AGR units

15 units worldwide share this model designation.

Unit	Country	Status	Gross MW
Hartlepool nuclear power plant A1	United Kingdom	Operating	655
Hartlepool nuclear power plant A2	United Kingdom	Operating	655
Heysham nuclear power plant A1	United Kingdom	Operating	625
Heysham nuclear power plant A2	United Kingdom	Operating	625
Heysham nuclear power plant B1	United Kingdom	Operating	680
Torness nuclear power plant 1	United Kingdom	Operating	682
Torness nuclear power plant 2	United Kingdom	Operating	682
Dungeness nuclear power plant B1	United Kingdom	Retired	615
Dungeness nuclear power plant B2	United Kingdom	Retired	615
Hinkley Point nuclear power plant B1	United Kingdom	Retired	655
Hinkley Point nuclear power plant B2	United Kingdom	Retired	655
Hunterston nuclear power plant B1	United Kingdom	Retired	644

Sources

Global Nuclear Power Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, August 2026 release , CC BY 4.0 · retrieved 2026-09-06 · this unit last researched by GEM on 2024-05-17
GEM.wiki entry (further reading) , CC BY-SA 4.0, linked, not quoted

How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data