page_title: Energy in the United Kingdom
section_title: Nuclear
hierarchical_section_title: Energy in the United Kingdom / Energy sources / Nuclear
caption_attribution_description: Heysham Power Station, from Heysham harbour dockside. Showing both Advanced gas-cooled (AGR) plants, stage 1 (on left) and stage 2 (obscured on right), each with two AGR nuclear reactors.
context_page_description: Energy use in the United Kingdom stood at 2,249 TWh in 2014. This equates to energy consumption per capita of 34.82 MWh compared to a 2010 world average of 21.54 MWh. Demand for electricity in 2014 was 34.42GW on average coming from a total electricity generation of 335.0TWh.
  Successive UK governments have outlined numerous commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. One such announcement was the Low Carbon Transition Plan launched by the Brown ministry in July 2009, which aimed to generate 30% electricity from renewable sources, and 40% from low carbon content fuels by 2020. Notably, the UK is one of the best sites in Europe for wind energy, and wind power production is its fastest growing supply. Wind power contributed 15% of UK electricity generation in 2017.
  Government commitments to reduce emissions are occurring against a backdrop of economic crisis across Europe. During the European financial crisis, Europe's consumption of electricity shrank by 5%, with primary production also facing a noticeable decline. Britain's trade deficit was reduced by 8% due to substantial cuts in energy imports. Between 2007 and 2015, the UK's peak electrical demand fell from 61.5 GW to 52.7.
context_section_description: Britain's fleet of operational reactors consists of 14 advanced gas-cooled reactors at six discrete sites and one PWR unit at Sizewell B. The total installed nuclear capacity in the United Kingdom is about 9 GW. In addition, the UK experimented with Fast Breeder reactor technologies at Dounreay in Scotland; however the last fast breeder (with 250MWe of capacity) was shut down in 1994.
  Even with changes to the planning system to speed nuclear power plant applications, there are doubts over whether the necessary timescale could be met to increase nuclear power output, and over the financial viability of nuclear power with present oil and gas prices. With no nuclear plants having been constructed since Sizewell B in 1995, there are also likely to be capacity issues within the native nuclear industry. The existing privatised nuclear supplier, British Energy, had been in financial trouble in 2004.
  In October 2010 the coalition British Government gave the go-ahead for the construction of up to eight new nuclear power plants. However, the Scottish Government, with the backing of the Scottish Parliament, has stated that no new nuclear power stations will be constructed in Scotland.
caption: Heysham nuclear power stations
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