nuclear-news

It’s not only politicians and their subjects getting nervous though. Once a world leader in nuclear technology, German engineering giant Siemens last month announced it was completely pulling out of the sector and in particular its joint venture with Rosatom of Russia to make nuclear generating equipment.

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), the UK’s second-biggest energy generator, also threw in the towel and said it would devote itself to producing more electricity from renewables.

It announced it would sell its 25% stake in NuGeneration Ltd – the consortium planning to build a new plant at Sellafield in Cumbria – to partners Iberdrola and GDF Suez……

It has to be acknowledged that, irrespective of Fukushima, new nuclear build was never going to be plain sailing from a technical or financial standpoint.

Just ask EDF, the French state-controlled utility which is currently building the first new nuclear plant in that country for 15 years with subsequent plans to build Britain’s first two plants for a generation.

Work started on the plant at Flamanville (France) in 2006, which uses the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) design, the same type that will be adopted at Hinkley Point and Sizewell should they go ahead.

At the time EDF estimated that each plant would cost €3.3 billion (£2.6bn) and take five years to complete. Earlier this year it admitted the timetable had slipped somewhat revising its projection to a completion date of 2016 and a cost of €6bn (£5.2bn).

There have been problems behind the scenes too, with France’s nuclear watchdog the ASN recently writing to EDF to highlight a series of ‘gaps and weaknesses’ in work being carried out. Complaints centred around safety conditions for workers (there have been a number of fatalities) and aspects of the reactor design….

[in UK] utilities may simply not have the money or the inclination in the current environment to borrow the huge sums required for projects with such large construction risks….

it’s also perhaps worth noting the recent find in northwest England of some 200 trillion cubic feet of shale gas. While not without safety concerns itself, it will be signifantly cheaper to pursue this resource in the short-term than new nuclear.

Read more: http://www.theengineer.co.uk/blog/bailing-out-on-nuclear/1010454.article#ixzz1ZZC845WH