We develop duality between nuclei on Heyting algebras and certain binary relations on Heyting spaces. We show that these binary relations are in 1–1 correspondence with subframes of Heyting spaces. We introduce the notions of nuclear and dense nuclear varieties of Heyting algebras, and prove that a variety of Heyting algebras is nuclear iff it is a subframe variety, and that it is dense nuclear iff it is a cofinal subframe variety. We give an alternative proof that every (cofinal) subframe variety of Heyting algebras is generated by its finite members. c 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.