nuclear-news

UK’s messy situation – the economics of new nuclear reactors

Japan, the nation who cannot even restart its own reactors or bring the Fukushima disaster to a close, will be allowed, no encouraged, to sell the UK its own technology right back, and presumably for a profit.

The Nuclear Powers of Japan and United Kingdom Enformable, 13 April 12,  “……The history of nuclear energy economics in the UK is equally complex. The once-mighty UK nuclear fleet, which at the beginning of the 1990s generated over 25% of the nations power, has fallen hard in more recent years.  The number of reactors operating dwindled while the
share of the energy market controlled by nuclear energy declined to
19.3% by 2004 and approximately 16% by 2009.

As of 2012, the United Kingdom operates 19 nuclear reactors at 10
plants (seven advanced gas-cooled reactor, two Magnox and one
pressurized water reactor), as well as a nuclear reprocessing plant at
Sellafield.

The first Magnox reactors were not built for purely “peaceful”
purposes, and later reactors faced delays which inflated costs.

The United Kingdom entered the nuclear energy development race early
with gas graphite reactors, like those at Chernobyl.  The UK heavily
subsidized the cost to utilities, although it greatly reduced the
estimated cost of energy stemming from generating power for 13 of the
first stations rendering artificially low estimates that did not
represent true costs..

In 1978 the United Kingdom switched to light water reactor designs.

Costs have also been complicated by the lack of national strategy or
policy for spent nuclear fuel.  Currently the UK has elected to
develop and research technology related to reprocessing and short-term
storage, with little thought invested in long-term storage plans.

Most of the UK’s higher-activity radioactive waste is currently held
in temporary storage at Sellafield.

In 2006, the UK completed the sale of nuclear builder BNFL
Westinghouse to a foreign conglomerate, against the advice of industry
experts.  The sale was complete: the company, the designs, the
licensing rights to the designs, everything.

That conglomerate was from, you guessed it, Japan.  Toshiba had to
beat off competition from its local rival Mitsubishi and General
Electric Company of America to acquire Westinghouse (which BNFL bought
in 1999.

As a result, where the UK once claimed to lead the world in developing
nuclear energy can now be seen trudging softly, cap in hand, to seek
foreign expertise from Japan to build the proposed future for them.

Japan, the nation who cannot even restart its own reactors or bring the Fukushima disaster to a close, will be allowed, no encouraged, to sell the UK its own technology right back, and presumably for a profit.
Most would agree that the Westinghouse PWER reactor, which is a more
accepted and cheaper design than the French Euro Pressurized reactor,
would be a much more agreeable addition to the UK nuclear fleet, and
concurrently all parties involved will try to save face.

However there are two reactors like the ones EDF wants for England are
under construction in France and Finland, they are nearly half a
decade late, and costing nearly twice as much as predicted.

The former head of EDF, François Rousseley, has recently suggested
that the reactor design should be dropped, and the French National
Audit Office has agreed, saying the plans are too “complex and
expensive”.
In March 2012, RWE npower and E.ON announced they would be pulling out
of developing new nuclear power plants, including a proposed
alternative to the EDF reactors. After RWE pulled out of UK nuclear
new build strategies, the UK is almost entirely reliant on the
goodwill of EDF to build the new stations, that is, except for Japan.

If there is no competition for the French then of course EDF will be
able to charge what they like and reap vast profits…..  http://enformable.com/2012/04/uk-and-japanese-agree-to-act-in-unison-on-nuclear-interests/

April 13, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Reference, UK