The Origin of our Energy.

Dungeness B was the first AGR to be built, but was one of the last to enter service - it was effectively a prototype, and had lots of issues. It was given a 10 year life extension in 2015 with a closure date of 2028. However, a scheduled maintenance shutdown in 2018 showed serious corrosion issues that (after spending something like £150m) were found to be uneconomic to repair.

All of the active AGRs are currently running under life extensions (and the "closed early" reports you see in the press are not really telling the full story - they relate to closing slightly before the estimated end-of-life for a final extension). AGR's are mainly life-limited due to radiation damage to the graphite core, which is why you will see them off line for a graphite inspection outage. Heysham 2, one of the last AGRs to be built, is currently undergoing such an inspection. It will be interesting to see if the results affect the expected closure date (currently 2028).

Sizewell B is a PWR. This will be its first extension, so there should be no risk of it not happening. However, this is the only one that can be kept running beyond its current planned closure date.

Dungeness B was the first AGR to be built, but was one of the last to enter service - it was effectively a prototype, and had lots of issues. It was given a 10 year life extension in 2015 with a closure date of 2028. However, a scheduled maintenance shutdown in 2018 showed serious corrosion issues that (after spending something like £150m) were found to be uneconomic to repair.

All of the active AGRs are currently running under life extensions (and the "closed early" reports you see in the press are not really telling the full story - they relate to closing slightly before the estimated end-of-life for a final extension). AGR's are mainly life-limited due to radiation damage to the graphite core, which is why you will see them off line for a graphite inspection outage. Heysham 2, one of the last AGRs to be built, is currently undergoing such an inspection. It will be interesting to see if the results affect the expected closure date (currently 2028).

Sizewell B is a PWR. This will be its first extension, so there should be no risk of it not happening. However, this is the only one that can be kept running beyond its current planned closure date.