Two of Britain’s oldest nuclear plants- Hartlepool and Heysham 1 (both Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors, or AGRs, operated by EDF Energy)- could see their lives extended by an additional two years to around 2030.

This comes due to an acute electricity shortage risk, as the UK transitions toward more intermittent renewables like wind while facing retirements of older capacity.

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Hartlepool and Heysham 1 licenses prolonged to 2030 due to ‘dangerous gap’ in power supplies

Two of Britain’s oldest nuclear power plants could be kept running for an extra two years because of an acute electricity shortage in the UK.

Hartlepool and Heysham 1, owned by EDF, were due to shut down in 2028, but ministers want to extend the operating licences to at least 2030 because the UK faces “a dangerous gap” in power supplies if they shut. The Telegraph has the story.

Both have already been operating for 42 years despite being scheduled to close for safety reasons in 2008.

EDF, France’s state-owned power utility, which operates all five UK nuclear stations, said it was working to keep the stations operational without compromising safety.

Mark Hartley, from EDF, said: “In November, the UK Government said that the retirement of these Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactors (AGRs) risks leaving a dangerous gap in Britain’s low-carbon energy supply.

“It is our ambition to generate from the remaining AGR stations for as long as it is safe and commercially viable to do so, and we will keep their lifetimes under review to assess whether further life extensions can be achieved.”

EDF will invest £1.2bn in the latest extensions, which will keep enough power on the grid to power about four million homes.

That power is vital to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s plans to decarbonise the UK’s power supplies by 2030.

Last year, nuclear stations generated 12pc of the UK’s electricity. This was 12pc lower than in 2024 because of an extended outage at Hartlepool power station.

Losing two nuclear stations would leave the UK dependent on imports via subsea interconnectors, but these might not always meet the nation’s needs.

Sizewell B, the UK’s largest nuclear plant, is already due to operate until 2035, and EDF hopes to extend this to 2055.

Two other stations, Torness and Heysham 2, were originally scheduled to close in 2023 and have been cleared to generate until March 2030 after EDF invested £8.6bn in the fleet.

The fate of Heysham 1 and Hartlepool is less certain and will depend on the results of safety assessments.

Read the full story here.