Martin Cheetham is the station director of the EDF-run Heysham 2 nuclear power plant on the Lancashire coast in northwest England. It has two advanced gas-cooled reactors which were first connected to the grid in 1988. They have a combined power of 1.24 GW and had an initial design life to 2023 before being extended to 2028.
The second unit at Heysham 2 power plant set a record with 940 days of continuous operation from 2014 to 2016 and the plant is now closing in on setting a new record for electricity generated by a nuclear power plant in the UK. As it does so, there are currently checks going on which could see a further extension to its life.
In this episode Cheetham talks about the similarities and differences between nuclear and his earlier work at thermal energy plants, he explains what decisions on Heysham's lifetime extension rest on, and why such decisions are different for the UK's fleet of AGRs compared with pressurised water reactors.
He also highlights the potential for the Heysham site to become home to a new generation of nuclear power, in the form of small modular reactors.
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