Fault puts nuclear power station offline over Christmas

EDF Energy said the outage at Heysham 2 power station on Monday was caused by an issue with the high voltage transmission system.

A reactor at a nuclear power station went offline over Christmas, an energy provider has confirmed.

EDF Energy said the outage at Heysham 2 power station, near Morecambe, on Monday was caused by an issue with the high voltage transmission system run by National Grid.

National Grid confirmed there was a fault at one of its remote substations that was at about the time Heysham 2 tripped.

EDF said it worked with National Grid over the Christmas period to fix the issue and safely return the reactor to service.

The energy provider said the Office for Nuclear Regulation was kept fully informed during the incident.

Heysham is the only site in the UK to have two operating nuclear power stations.

Heysham 1 began operating in 1983. It has two advanced gas cooled reactors, which are scheduled for closure in 2027.

The second plant started generating in 1988 and, like Heysham 1, has two advanced gas cooled reactors and is due to close in 2030.