Operator Electricite de France took the Heysham Unit 2 reactor in northwestern Britain off line on Friday, establishing a new record for continuous operations of a commercial nuclear power plant: 940 days.
The unit, part of the Heysham II facility, was taken off line for a scheduled outage for maintenance work and inspections. The Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) has been online since February 18, 2014, thus besting the previous record of 894 days established between April 26, 1992 and October 7, 1994 by the Pickering Plant in Ontario, Canada. As such, the Heysham II Unit 2 has beaten the 22-year-old record, established by Pickering's Unit 7, by 46 days.
The 940-day streak churned out over 14 TWh of electricity, which could supply 3.4 million homes with electricity for a year, according to media reports. During the run, 123 fuel channels were refueled.
At the World Nuclear Association's Annual Symposium in London, EDF Energy Chief Executive Officer Vincent de Rivaz said that the amount of carbon-free electricity generated through the record run would have resulted in over 7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, had a fossil fuel been burned to create the same amount of electricity.
“It is just one example of the outstanding performance of EDF Energ's 15 nuclear reactors in the UK,” said Rivaz, as quoted by the World Nuclear News. Since 2009, when EDF took over the British fleet of nuclear power plants, the company has increased safety performance by 51 percent and output by 50 percent, he said.