Hinkley Point B passes from EDF to the NDA, the second AGR handed over
Serguey Asael Shinder2 min readOwnership of the Hinkley Point B nuclear power station in Somerset has transferred from EDF Energy to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, World Nuclear News reports. It is the second of the UK's Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor stations to make the move, after Hunterston B in April this year.
Hinkley Point B, with two AGRs, was first synchronised to the grid in February 1976 and generated more than 311 TWh before it shut down permanently in August 2022. Fuel removal began within weeks. More than 4,900 used fuel elements were packaged into transport flasks and sent to Sellafield in Cumbria, and the last fuel left the site on 28 November 2025. In January 2026 the Office for Nuclear Regulation granted the plant fuel-free verification. EDF applied to decommission it in September 2024, and the ONR approved the plans in late October 2025 after a public consultation and an assessment of EDF's environmental statement.
The ONR has now approved relicensing the site from EDF to Nuclear Restoration Services, the NDA subsidiary that will dismantle and demolish the plant and buildings and clear and restore the land; it is already decommissioning the neighbouring Hinkley Point A. The ONR's head of safety for decommissioning, fuel and waste sites, Tom Eagleton, called it the first AGR site in England to move to NRS.
The handover follows a 2021 agreement between the UK government and EDF. EDF was originally responsible for the full lifetime decommissioning of all seven AGR stations - Torness and Hunterston B in Scotland, Dungeness B, Hartlepool, Heysham 1 and 2, and Hinkley Point B - all due to reach the end of their operating lives this decade. Under the revised arrangement EDF concentrates on removing fuel quickly as each station closes, then transfers ownership to the NDA.
Why it matters
The AGR fleet has supplied a large share of Britain's low-carbon power for decades and is retiring within a few years. A fixed sequence of fuel removal followed by transfer gives the NDA a predictable pipeline, and Hinkley Point B's timeline, about three and a half years from shutdown to transfer, is the benchmark for the five stations still operating.