WANO member sets world record
Press Release
29 September 2016
EDF Energy's Heysham 2 has set a new world record for continuous operation, surpassing a 22-year-old record set by the Pickering nuclear generating station in Canada by 46 days.
The record breaking plant - a WANO Paris Centre member - shut down one of the two units this week for planned maintenance, ending an operational run of 940 days.
During this run, this one unit has generated over 14.7TWh, enough low carbon electricity to power well over three million homes for a year.
Since EDF Energy took over its UK nuclear power stations in 2009, their output has increased by 50%, safety performance has increased by 51% and their lifespans have increased by 25%. Heysham 2 is scheduled to operate until 2030, an extension of seven years.
The maintenance periods, known as 'statutory outages', take place every three years.
EDF Energy 's Torness nuclear power station, in East Lothian, is on course to break Heysham 2's record in February 2017 and it is due to reach 996 continuous days of operation when it shuts down for planned maintenance in April 2017.