The Nuclear Generation #2

Nuclear power is the favourite “silver bullet” to many UK Government officials in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) – a solution for climate change, energy security, and fingers crossed, for the price of electricity. So why isn’t the data on nuclear power generation more readily available ? Surely the future is predicated on the past ? Surely future assumptions need to be projected from past performance ? So why do we only hear stories of mythical unicorns (as yet unbuilt plant) rather than kilowatt hours per month, per nuclear power plant, per reactor/turbine combination, stretching back in time ? I mean, we get summaries, but not details; annual, not monthly, collected totals, but not specifics. This coarse-grained data is not sufficient for a decent analysis. We can compare year-on-year, but not power plant by power plant, month by month.

Time for another Freedom of Information request.

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To: “Freedom of Information Requests, Department of Energy and Climate
Change”
Information Rights Unit
Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
5th Floor
Victoria 3
1 Victoria Street
London
SW1H OET

31st March 2015

Request to the Department of Energy and Climate Change

Re : Nuclear Power Generation in the United Kingdom

Dear Madam/Sir,

I am researching the potential for existing and planned nuclear power
plants (NPPs) to contribute to the future electricity needs of the
National Grid.

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act of 2000, please
could you send me any and all electronic/digital documents, Internet
hypertext links to electronic/digital documents, or other
electronic/digital material bearing information relating to the
questions below :-

1. The history of atomic energy in the United Kingdom

Please could you provide me with month-by-month data of :-

(a) The actual electricity generation (in gigawatt hours (GWh)) and
(b) The power generation capacity (in megawatts (MW))

of each individual nuclear power plant nuclear reactor and each
nuclear power plant power generation turbine, for the years from first
power generated by the NPP to the present day. This data should
include NPPs and nuclear reactors that are shut down, and those in the
process of being decommissioned.

2. Lifetime extensions on nuclear reactors

Please could you provide me with a list of work done, or planned to be
done, to enable the lifetime extension of each nuclear reactor and NPP
in the United Kingdom.

3. Anticipated nuclear reactor decommissioning dates

Please could you provide me with up-to-date information about the
anticipated dates of final shutdown of each nuclear reactor at each
NPP in the UK.

4. New build

Please could you provide me with an up-to-date list of new nuclear
reactors and new NPPs that are under construction, and their
anticipated date for first power generation. The data should include :
the power generation capacity (in MW) according to design, the actual
electricity generation (in GWh) according to design, and the
anticipated date of final shut down and decommissioning.

Thank you for your attention to my request for information.

Regards,

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