Skip to main content
Menu

Heysham 1 power station

Heysham 1 is a nuclear power station on the north west coast of England near Lancaster. Heysham is the only site in the UK to have two operating nuclear power stations. 

Since 1983 Heysham 1 has generated 243 TWh of zero carbon electricity

House icon with power symbol

Enough to power every home in Lancashire for 119 years

CO2 cloud icon

Avoiding 85m tonnes of CO2 emissions*

Like taking 40m cars off UK roads for a year

* when compared to direct emissions of combined cycle gas turbines | all figures rounded to the nearest hundred thousand

Heysham 1 careers

After starting her career as an Electrical Design Engineer, Eloise has worked in the nuclear industry for over 20 years, developing her experience and expertise with engineering firms and design offices until joining EDF 5 years ago.  

Heysham 1 apprenticeships

The Heysham 1 apprenticeship schemes are open for applications.

Our Industrial Placements at Heysham 1 offer you the chance to gain an insight into life at EDF by discovering what it's like to work in the energy industry during a paid 12-month placement. Current placement opportunities for 2024 are currently being advertised.

Heysham 1 enjoys relationships with many local schools and colleges as we look to build our links with our potential future employees. If you’re interested in doing some work experience here at Heysham 1, we can accommodate work experience placements aimed at current school / college students, for a period of up to five days. These must be pre-arranged before being undertaken. If you would like to get involved or have any questions, please email: Work.ExperienceMailb@edf-energy.com.

If you’re considering a career with EDF, check out these videos, tips on how to apply, and insightful advice from previous graduates.

About Heysham 1

  • Station Director: Martin Cheetham
  • Reactor type: 2 Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors
  • Total supply to the national grid: 1155 MW
  • Coolant: Carbon dioxide gas (CO2)
  • Start of construction: 1970
  • Start of generation: 1983
  • Estimated end of generation: 2026
  • People: Approximately 530 full time EDF employees plus over 200 full time contract partners
  • Daily plant status - find out which reactors at our eight nuclear power stations are in service and what they are generating (data updated on weekdays)
  • EDF also operates another nuclear power station in Heysham. Find out more about Heysham 2

Visit Heysham 1 power station

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has announced £6.1m for the Bay Hydrogen Hub.
Caption
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has announced £6.1m for the Bay Hydrogen Hub.

Our Heysham site is unique to the business, as it is the only location to have two operating nuclear power stations. Our visitor centre supports both sites – with tours taking place on Heysham 2. 

  • The visitor centre has an interactive exhibition to help visitors learn about nuclear power generation, alongside a classroom facility.
  • Tours take around 2 hours and can be pre-booked for free at least 3 weeks in advance. Minimum age is 8 years old.
  • Trained station guides accompany the tours which include the reactor viewing gallery, the turbine hall and the control room viewing gallery.
  • All tours include a safety and security briefing and relevant Personal Protective equipment.
  • If you have any questions about the visitor centre, or about taking a tour, please check our FAQs.
  • Opening hours:
    • Monday to Thursday: 10:00 - 16:00
    • Friday: 10:00 - 14:30
    • Weekends and bank holidays: Closed
  • Contact the visitor centre on:
    • Telephone: 01524 868451
    • Address: Heysham 2 power station, Morecambe, Lancashire. LA3 2XH
    • Email: heyshamvisitorcentre@edf-energy.com

Tour information

Tours of Heysham Power Station are booked via a wait list system. 

Please contact us if you would like to be added to the waiting list by emailing heyshamvisitorcentre@edf-energy.com. We are experiencing a high volume of requests so it may take us a little while to respond to you. 

We can accommodate different groups sizes on different days so please state in the email how many adults (aged 18+)  and how many children (17 and under). You can suggest dates to us, however please note we may not be able to accommodate your suggested group sizes or dates and may instead offer you alternative ones.

Educational tours booked by a School or College can bring up to 36 children (18 and under) and 4 adults aged (19+).

Public tours can accommodate up to 30 people in total. There is no minimum number needed to tour. We do not offer multiple tour dates to the same group due to the amount of requests we receive.

We also offer visitor centre only experiences. If you would like to book an hour in the exhibition area please email heyshamvisitorcentre@edf-energy.com to check availability. These slots are between 15:15 – 16:15 from Monday - Friday, we will inform you of available dates when you contact us.

Picture of Heysham nuclear power station

Contact us

  • Address:
    EDF Heysham power station
    Morecambe
    Lancashire LA3 2XH

    Reception:
    +44 (0)1524 853131
  • Media and community requests:
    HeyshamCommunity@edf-energy.com

    Heysham Visitor Centre
    Heyshamvisitorcentre@edf-energy.com
    01524 868451

Community

EDF hold regular meetings (Local Community Liaison Council or LCLC) with local people, the media, council and emergency services representatives and local politicians to maintain regular communications about the nuclear site. Members of the public are invited to observe the meeting and questions will be taken at the end of session.

News from Heysham

Nuclear engineers at Heysham power station
January 09, 2024

Investment boost to maintain UK nuclear output at current levels until at least 2026

EDF plans to invest a further £1.3billion in the UK’s five generating nuclear power stations over 2024-26, taking the total invested in the fleet to nearly £9billion since 2009.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has announced £6.1m for the Bay Hydrogen Hub.
September 13, 2023

More progress on exciting hydrogen plans for Heysham 2

Bold plans to use nuclear generated hydrogen to decarbonise a key British industry, have taken another huge step forward.

Safety and reporting

Our number one priority is safety. Find out about our ​​​​​​​commitment to Zero Harm.

How we generate our power

As Britain's biggest generator of zero carbon electricity(1) we generate power from wind + nuclear + solar.

Nuclear engineer on site at nuclear power station using tablet

Careers at EDF

Interested in working at EDF? Find out about our graduate programmes, apprenticeships, internships and current vacancies.