THE life of the 46-year-old Hinkley Point B nuclear power station will not be extended beyond this summer’s planned shutdown, despite fears of winter power cuts caused by uncertain world gas supplies.

EDF Energy confirmed this week that the shutdown of the station’s two reactors would go ahead in July and August as planned. This came after culture minister Chris Philp said that business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng was considering whether the station should “continue beyond its planned end” to guard against a gas market “worst-case scenario”, and possible energy blackouts.

In response to Mr Philp’s comments, an EDF spokesperson said: “As confirmed in November 2020, Hinkley Point B nuclear power station will stop generating and move into the defueling phase by August 1, 2022.

“It has reliably produced zero carbon electricity for over 46 years, more than 15 years longer than envisaged when built, and will complete its generating phase as the most productive nuclear site the UK has ever had.”

Hinkley Point B has been generating electricity since 1976 and has produced more than 300 terawatt hours of power - which would power every home in the UK for three years.

Last month, Mr Kwarteng wrote to the owners of the UK’s three remaining coal-fired power stations to ask them to stay open longer than planned, and inquired “as a sensible precautionary measure” whether Hinkley B might continue beyond its planned life-span if gas supplies were seriously affected.

In a memo to staff, EDF said that although it would be technically feasible to extend operations at Hinkley B for up to six months “the time required to do this and to be confident that we would be ready for winter operating has now run out.”

The decommissioning will take about three years. A spokesperson said: “Hinkley B has saved about 100 million tons of carbon-dioxide going into the atmosphere and we are very proud of that.”

The station also tops the UK nuclear league table for the amount of energy it has produced.