As world leaders gather in Glasgow to discuss tackling climate change, Britain’s current nuclear fleet passed a significant milestone, clocking up 2000 terawatt hours of clean power generation. That’s enough zero carbon electricity to power all the UK’s 29 million homes for 18.5 years.
Image Credit: Nuclear Industry Association
The current fleet are the most productive low-carbon assets in British history, saving 1.4 billion tonnes of carbon emissions between them. That is higher than all UK emissions from 2018 through 2020.
Hinkley Point B in Somerset and Hunterston B in North Ayrshire were the first of today’s fleet to come online in 1976 and were joined by six more stations, which have been powering the UK for 45 years.
In total, nuclear has saved the UK more than 2.3 billion tonnes of carbon emissions, far more than any other green energy source.
To tell the story of nuclear’s important role in cutting carbon emissions, the nuclear industry, with the support of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, have launched a specially developed website Net Zero Needs Nuclear. The site has been designed to help people understand how nuclear contributes to the fight against climate change and its different capabilities to deliver green energy in the future.
Commenting on the milestone, Tom Greatrex, Chief Executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said,
“Nuclear has made an historic contribution to the UK’s fight against climate change. Since all but one of the current nuclear fleet will be offline by 2030, we can only sustain this contribution if we build new nuclear power stations that will provide the firm, low-carbon power we need for net zero.
“That is why the Government’s introduction of a new nuclear financing model is critical to mobilise new investment and close the clean power gap.”