nuclear-news

Hinkley Point C delay deals blow to UK energy strategy 

 “We have the expertise, the supply chains and the teams ready to build
Hinkley Point C safely, on time and on budget,” Vincent de Rivaz, then
chief executive of EDF, said in 2016 as the project to build the UK’s
first nuclear power station since the 1990s got under way.

That confidence has proven misplaced. Earlier this week, the French state-owned utility
announced the latest in a series of delays and cost overruns to the 3.2
gigawatt plant under construction in Somerset. The setback to a plant that
is meant to supply electricity to 6mn homes has raised fresh questions
about the UK’s energy strategy and its push to decarbonise the grid over
the next decade as part of its goal to reach net zero by 2050.

Analysts at LSEG estimated the latest delays to the plant would push wholesale power
prices up by as much as 6 per cent between 2029 and 2032, based on the
assumption that unit two would come online in 2033. EDF is looking at ways
to help mitigate the latest delay. Two weeks ago it said it was examining
plans to further extend the life of its four oldest plants, which use
advanced gas-cooled reactor technology and date back to the 1980s.

But
there is still some doubt about that plan. Jerry Haller, EDF’s former
decommissioning director, told a parliamentary committee inquiry in 2022
that nothing could be done to extend the life of the AGR fleet again. “No
further investment will take them further,” he said at the time. EDF said
since those comments further inspections of the reactor cores had “been
better than, or in line with, our expectations”. It had already decided
last year to keep two of the plants — Heysham 1 and Hartlepool — open
until at least 2026.

But even if more life can be eked out of existing
reactors, the problems besetting Hinkley Point C have raised wider
questions about how the UK will reach its 24GW nuclear build target by
2050.

 FT 27th Jan 2024

https://www.ft.com/content/55ef86b4-f55c-47a9-8121-c6c8cf6b5b18

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January 30, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK