CURRENT OPERATING LIVES^* AND CLOSURE DATES

*As formally recorded by EDF Energy and approved by the NDA.

CAPACITY AND OUTPUT BY POWER PLANT

(1) Capacities are stated net of all power consumed for the power stations’ own use, including power imported from the Grid.
(2) Output in each year reflects any refuelling, planned and unplanned outages.
(3) Load factors are obtained by dividing the actual output by the output that would have been achieved by each power plant operated at its stated capacity appropriate for the period.

Operational review of the existing nuclear generation fleet

The nuclear generation fleet produced 51.0TWh during 2019, 8.1TWh less than 2018 (59.1TWh). The reduction in output is largely due to the extended outages at Dungeness B to address corrosion on cooling water pipework and the discovery of steam pipework cracking and the extended outages at Hunterston B for graphite inspections and safety case work.

Planned statutory outages were completed on Hartlepool Reactor 2, Hinkley Point B Reactor 3, Hunterston B Reactor 3 and Sizewell B.

A statutory outage was started on Dungeness B Reactor 22 in August 2018 with an associated outage on Reactor 21 starting in September for work on common systems.These outages have been extended to address corrosion on cooling water pipework and the discovery of steam pipework cracking. The units are expected to return to service in May/April 2020.

Hunterston B Reactor 3 was shut down for a scheduled graphite core inspection in March 2018. Following the discovery of new keyway root cracks in the reactor core at a slightly higher rate than modelled in the current safety case, EDF Energy took the decision to keep the reactor offline for further inspections and safety case work. Agraphite core inspection on Hunterston B Reactor 4 planned for 2019 was also brought forward to October 2018. A safety case for the return to service of Reactor 3 was submitted to the ONR in June 2019 and is being assessed. Meanwhile, Reactor 4 was returned to service in August 2019 but was shut down again in December 2019 awaiting approval of the Reactor 3 case. Both units are expected to return to service in Q1 2020, provided that the examination of the safety case confirms the proposed schedule. The scheduled dates for the return of these units have been postponed several times throughout the year 2019 due to the complexity of this case.

Radioactive Waste Management

In the UK, radioactive waste is classified into four categories:

• Low Level Waste (LLW), for which a near surface disposal route exists – including the LLW Repository at Drigg West Cumbria;
• Intermediate Level Waste (ILW), for which no disposal route is currently available in the UK;
• High Level Waste (HLW) is defined as radioactive waste in which the temperature may rise significantly as a result of the radioactivity, so this factor has to be taken into account in the design of storage and disposal facilities;
• Higher Activity Waste (HAW) – this is effectively HLW, ILW and any LLW that are unsuitable for near-surface disposal.