In 2010, the British government announced that Heysham was one of the eight sites it considered suitable for future nuclear power stations.

[6] On 1 August 2016, Heysham 2's Unit 8 broke the world record for longest continuous operation of a nuclear power reactor without a shutdown.

This record-breaking run exceeds the previous record of 894 days set by Pickering Nuclear Generating Station's Unit 7 (Lake Ontario, Canada) in 1994.

[9] On 15 August 2019, Reactor 8 inside Heysham 2 let off a large amount of steam, with banging noises at approximately 11 pm that could be heard 7 miles (11 km) away in Lancaster.

EDF later reported that a reactor had earlier experienced a "non-planned shutdown after an electrical fault", and the noise was from the re-start process when unsilenced relief valves lifted on the Startup Vessels during boiler feeding.

[15][16] In December 2024, EDF announced that Heysham 2 would continue producing electricity until March 2030 in response to concerns over energy security following delays to the opening of Hinkley Point C.[5]