Plans for the first new nuclear power station for nearly a generation in the UK have got the the go-ahead from the energy secretary, Ed Davey, who has said he is granting planning consent.
Davey told the House of Commons the French energy giant EDF would be allowed to build two new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset, on the site of an existing power station, which is due to close in 2023.
“It’s vital to get investment in new infrastructure to get the economy moving,” said Davey. “[Hinkley] will generate vast amounts of clean energy and enhance our energy security. It will benefit the local economy, through direct employment, the supply chain and the use of local services.”
The two new 1.6-gigawatt reactors will become one of the biggest power plants in the UK, providing enough electricity for up to 5m average homes. The nuclear plant is expected to be the first in a series of new ones the coalition has proposed as part of its plans to replace ageing coal and nuclear facilities that are due to be closed over the next few years.
However, the symbolic decision on planning permission still leaves Davey’s department for energy and climate change and EDF locked in negotiations over how much subsidy the company will get during the life of the plant.
It is thought officials are discussing a contract that would guarantee the French company being paid nearly £100 for each megawatt hour of electricity produced over 30 to 40 years.
Under the system, called “contracts for difference“, if the market price, which is currently about half that level, is lower than the agreed minimum “strike price”, electricity suppliers will have to pay the difference by making a surcharge on customer bills; if the market price rises higher, then the company would forfeit the difference.
EDF and government officials also have to agree how much the company will pay for long-term storage of nuclear waste.
The directors, Tim Graf and Jakob Montrasio, traveled from Tokyo to the hardest-hit prefectures in Eastern Japan, interviewing scholars, clergy, and laypeople from the Soto Zen and Jodo Pure Land traditions.The film provides a complex portrait of Buddhism in the aftermath of the triple disaster, and looks at the changes that have happened in Japanese Buddhism both because of the disaster and because of demographic changes and religious pluralism.
nuclear-news 