UK’s nuclear reactors are ageingpublished at 08:41 British Summer Time
Theo Leggett
International business correspondent
The UK currently has nine nuclear reactors in operation (some sites have more than one reactor – see map below), but they’re ageing, and eight of them are due to close by the end of the decade.
The newest – Sizewell B – came into service 30 years ago. Last year, between them they provided a little more than 14% of our electricity.
This was a relatively small proportion of our overall consumption – significantly less than we obtained from wind (30%) or gas (26%), for example.
But crucially, nuclear provides “baseload” power – a steady supply of reliable electricity that is available to meet continuous demands on the grid, while more flexible resources can be used to deal with peaks in consumption.
Successive governments have been deeply concerned about the prospect of losing this reliable power.
That’s why we have the huge investment in Hinkley Point C in Somerset, and why Sizewell C will also get billions in funding, while there’s also a lot of interest in small modular reactors.
