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Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the Nuclear Industries Association, said: “Nuclear output is the lowest since 1982 because we have fewer nuclear power stations.
“We are down to 5.9 GW of nuclear capacity, the least we have had since 1975, after Hunterston B and Hinkley Point B entered their long-planned retirement in 2022.
“We have known literally for decades that the existing nuclear fleet would retire in the 2020s, but successive governments procrastinated for years in getting new projects underway, hoping that something would turn up.
“That is why we have to get on with a new programme of projects from Sizewell C and beyond, so we aren’t in this position in the 2030s and beyond.”
Eight of the UK’s nine remaining nuclear fleet are advanced gas-cooled operational reactors (AGRs) spread across three main sites, all of which are due to shut down between 2026 and 2028.
EDF’s Sizewell B station in Suffolk, which opened in 1995, uses a different technology. Its single pressurised water reactor is generating another 1.2Gw, but it too will shut down for maintenance in October. Its final closure is scheduled for 2035.
A spokesperson for EDF said: “We will seek to extend the life of Sizewell B by 20 years and we will run the AGRs for as long as it is safe and commercially viable but the AGRs will not be able to run forever.
“That is why we need a clear timetable for nuclear development in the UK beyond Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C.”
Separate analysis by Carbon Brief confirmed the decline in nuclear output but showed a corresponding decline in the amount of UK electricity generated from fossil fuels.
Over the last several years the UK has generated about 40pc of its electricity from burning gas but in 2023 this declined to 33.5pc, with another 1pc coming from coal.
The Government was contacted for comment.
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