Plan to store nuclear waste under Holderness for 175 years
Nuclear waste from across the UK could be stored below an area of East Yorkshire for up to 175 years.
Government agency Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) announced proposals today to build a storage facility beneath South Holderness.
A group has been set up to examine the proposals, but the agency’s chief executive Corhyn Parr said the scheme would only go ahead with residents’ approval.
She said: “This is a consent-based process, meaning if the community does not express support… it won’t be built there.”
Ms Parr added that the new geological disposal facility would bring benefits to the area, including thousands of jobs and transport improvements.
Two similar working groups are already established in Cumbria and at Theddlethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast.
Dr David Richards, independent chair of the South Holderness working group, said the aim was to work with local communities to discuss the potential of a series of vaults and tunnels being built deep underground, or under the sea, where the material would be buried.
He added: “My role as chair is to make sure local communities have access to information and to understand what people think.”…………………………
Graham Stuart, the MP for Beverley and Holderness, said that he will be meeting with Dr David Richards to discuss the plans.
He wrote on Facebook: “I’ll be asking for a copper bottomed guarantee that nothing would happen without public consent…………………………. https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2024-01-25/plan-to-store-nuclear-waste-under-east-yorkshire-for-175-years
EDF a total basket case, weighed down by its 50 Billion pound nuclear turkey at Hinkley point
Jonathon Porritt, https://www.jonathonporritt.com/edf-a-total-basket-case-weighed-down-by-its-50-billion-nuclear-turkey-at-hinkley-point/ 25 Jan 24
EdF’s bosses must be thanking their lucky stars that President Macron decided to take complete control of EdF back in 2022. Otherwise, its latest announcements about further delays and cost increases for its new reactors at Hinkley Point would have sent any remaining investors running for the hills.
The scale of those announcements is staggering:
- The price tag for Hinkley Point C has now been reset at £31-34 billion (in 2015 prices), twice the original £18 billion.
- In today’s money, that’s around £46 billion – with further delays and cost hikes (rising to at least £50 billion) all but inevitable.
- EdF’s shortfall in completing Hinkley Point has risen substantially, and could now be as high as £25 billion on its balance sheet.
- EdF has admitted that 2029 is now the earliest Hinkley Point will come online. Fat chance of that.
Which makes Hinkley Point C even more of a bust than EdF’s current worst reactor construction nightmare at Flamanville in France. And significantly worse than its plant at Olkiluoto in Finland, which it just managed to get over the line last year.
So, watch out for the fallout.
Hinkley Point C was meant to be coming online in 2027. All neutral commentators now reckon 2031 (EdF’s so-called ”unfavourable scenario”) is the earliest that will happen. That’s a further four-year delay before its low-carbon electrons (providing 7% of the UK’s electricity) will be available to help the UK meet its various decarbonisation targets.
Add to that the knock-on impact of this on the Government’s/Labour’s hopes for a Hinkley Point look-alike (really!) at Sizewell C. The sales pitch to investors for that has now become even trickier than it was before: “Just look at this beautiful £50 billion turkey: another one just like it could be all yours at a bargain-basement price of, say, £40 billion”.
Which leads to the following conclusions:
EdF is even more screwed than it was before, deeper in debt, with further delays for rolling out its look-alike plant at Sizewell C now inevitable.- The Tory Government is screwed, with no chance of Hinkley Point C (let alone Sizewell C) making any serious short-term contribution to its decarbonisation strategy.
- Labour is screwed – for exactly the same reasons.
- The UK’s Net Zero strategy by 2050 looks less and less viable. And that will soon be tested, again, in the courts.
- All this because of the nuclear obsessions of the UK’s entire political establishment – Labour just as much as the Tories.
Happily, there’s no need to panic: the case for the “renewables + efficiency + storage + smart grids” option just got a whole lot stronger, both economically and politically. We just need the donkeys in Whitehall to give up on their nuclear turkeys. Finally!
The Post Office Scandal, Nuclear Waste and The Bransty Tunnel – Off Limits for Nuclear Luvvies at Britain Remade?
Trudy Harrison MP and wannabe MP Josh MacAlister have joined forces under the banner of “Britain Remade”. Their dream of building a nuclear prefab “faster” and “cheaper” next to the worlds biggest stockpile of plutonium is within our grasp they breathlessly tell us. “There could be new nuclear power in Cumbria, delivering jobs for the region, and clean energy for the whole country”.
Hot and dangerous Nuclear wastes from their “clean energy” trundles through the Bransty Rail Tunnel under the town of Whitehaven EVERY week enroute to the Sellafield site already bursting at the seams with radioactive crapola. The Bransty Rail Tunnel has served Network Rail and the nuclear industry well. It is a fine piece of old Victorian engineering which extends for a full 1km directly under homes and businesses in Whitehaven. Only recently it has become unstable. Network Rail are rather worried about the impacts of reactivated old mine water water bubbling up into the tunnel and even putting pressure on the sides of the tunnel (as we can see from Network Rail’s own video taken recently).
Rather than gushing about building untried untested nuclear prefabs (euphemistically called “Small Modular Reactors” actually pretty large at half the size of Calder Hall reactors), the MP and wannabe MP should be putting EVERY EFFORT into protecting the safety of the folk of Whitehaven by CLOSING THIS TUNNEL certainly to Nuclear Waste Transports and possibly to passenger and other freight trains. Ceasing nuclear waste production in Scotland and the North wouldn’t make a huge difference to electricity as nuclear’s contribution to the UKs electrcity capacity has been minimal according to National Grid with wind producing many times more capacity in the recent cold weather.
The most urgent question for Whitehaven is:
Why is heavily polluted mine water is still gushing into the nuclear waste route of the Bransty Tunnel over one year on and into Queens Dock, Whitehaven and what are Trudy Harrison MP and Josh MacAlister wannabe MP doing to address this?
Another equally urgent and topical question given the Post Office scandal is:
Are the MP and prospective MP happy that all nuclear waste consignments including those travelling a few times a week through the Bransty Tunnel are monitored and tracked by the same company, Fujitsu, responsible for the Post Office scandal. Fujitsu’s “Accountancy and Tracking Of Material” ATOM was contracted by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority in 2001. “Fujitsu chose a combination of Microsoft and Oracle systems with web portal technology to make this possible, i.e. to successfully design and implement a package to process, update and report on nuclear and radioactive materials throughout the supply chain.” As Dik Third of UKAEA says, “We believe that there is no other system in the world capable of dealing with such complexity and breadth of plant operations and regulatory accounting requirements.” Does Whitehaven feel lucky? Britain is being Remade into what? A Nuclear Sacrifice Zone?
US plans to store nuclear weapons in UK: report
Examiner January 27 2024 –
The US is planning to station nuclear weapons in the UK for the first time in 15 years amid a growing threat from Russia, according to a report.
Warheads three times as strong as the Hiroshima bomb would be located at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk under the proposals, The Telegraph reported.
The US previously placed nuclear missiles at RAF Lakenheath, removing them in 2008 when the Cold War threat from Moscow had receded.
Pentagon documents seen by the UK newspaper reveal procurement contracts for a new facility at the airbase.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “It remains a longstanding UK and NATO policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location.”
………………………….. Downing Street defended the government’s spending on defence, saying Britain has been Washington’s “partner of choice” in its strikes against Houthi rebels in the Red Sea because of its “military strength”. https://www.examiner.com.au/story/8500518/us-plans-to-store-nuclear-weapons-in-uk-report/—
UN Nuclear Chief Says ‘Very Real’ Threat Remains at Moscow-Held Zaporizhzhia Plant
Moscow Times 26 Jan 24
The possibility of a nuclear disaster at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine remains “very real,” according to the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog. …….
Regular shelling and drone attacks around the plant have raised the risks of a radioactive disaster, while Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of planning provocations.
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been on the ground monitoring the Zaporizhzhia plant since September 2022.
“The plant’s six reactors have been shut down since mid-2022 — five of them in cold shutdown and one in hot shutdown. But the potential dangers of a major nuclear accident remain very real,” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told the UN Security Council on Thursday.
Grossi warned that issues with access to power could lead to a disaster at the Moscow-controlled nuclear plant.
Emergency diesel generators are now “the last line of defense against a nuclear accident” after they were activated eight times when the plant lost all off-site power, he added.
“The plant is currently relying on just two lines of external power, and sometimes just one, or for a period the backup power was not properly configured. This demonstrates the highly precarious situation regarding essential off-site power.”………. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/01/26/un-nuclear-chief-says-very-real-threat-remains-at-moscow-held-zaporizhzhia-plant-a83860
Finland is a focal point of Nato’s largest exercise since the Cold War, and looks to siting nuclear weapons.
YLE NEWS 26 Jan 24
Nato’s largest military exercise since the Cold War is starting in Finland this week, reports Ilta-Sanomat.
The exercise, dubbed “Steadfast Defender”, is bringing Nato soldiers to Finland. The drill, which includes a total of 90,000 troops from 31 Nato countries, will span this winter and spring and involves thousands of troops moving massive amounts of material through Sweden.
Troops are practicing defending a European Nato ally that has come under attack. Swedish broadcaster SVT has reported that the exercise features a scenario where Russia attacks Finland and Nato invokes Article 5, its collective defence clause.
Nuclear reality
An editorial in Helsingin Sanomat suggests that Finnish leaders have not come to terms with the fact that nuclear weapons are a core part of Nato’s deterrence policy. The paper notes that some presidential candidates don’t support siting nuclear weapons in Finland. At the same time, Finland is reworking its nuclear safety laws. According to HS, these reforms must not impede Nato’s operational activities in a wartime situation in Finland.
The nuclear deterrent is a central component of Nato’s security guarantees, under which Finland sought protection by pursuing membership in the alliance. For that reason, Finland must bear its own responsibility in preserving that deterrent, according to the national daily……………. more https://yle.fi/a/74-20070550
Ukraine to start building 4 new nuclear reactors this year
By Pavel Polityuk. January 25, 2024
KYIV, Jan 25 (Reuters) – Ukraine expects to start construction work on four new nuclear power reactors this summer or autumn, Energy Minister German Galushchenko told Reuters on Thursday, as the country seeks to compensate for lost energy capacity due to the war with Russia.
Two of the units – which include reactors and related equipment – will be based on Russian-made equipment that Ukraine wants to import from Bulgaria, while the other two will use Western technology from power equipment maker Westinghouse.
All four reactors will be built at the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant in the west of Ukraine, Galushchenko added.
The timeline is more aggressive than previously outlined by Kyiv, which has spoken of starting work in some time in 2024 and without specifying that all four reactors could be developed simultaneously.
“I think (we’ll start construction) in summer-autumn,” Galushchenko said in an interview. “We need vessels,” he added, referring to the reactor pressure vessels that will have to be imported. We want to do the third and fourth units right away.”
Construction of the 3rd and 4th reactors at Khmelnytskyi began in the 1980s but was frozen.
Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine has built three new nuclear reactors – one each at Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi and Rivne nuclear power plants…………………
In parallel with the construction of the Soviet-era VVER-1000 units, Ukraine wants to start preparatory construction work to accommodate two modern Western AP-1000 units, also at Khmelnytskyi.
“We need to pass (parliamentary) legislation and we have draft laws on the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th units. This is VVER-1000s, while the 5th and 6th we want to build the AP-type. This is a parallel process,” he said.
In December, Ukraine’s nuclear power firm Energoatom and Westinghouse signed an agreement on the purchase of equipment for Khmelnytskyi’s 5th power unit.
Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Nick Macfie https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ukraine-start-building-4-new-nuclear-reactors-this-year-minister-2024-01-25/
Hinkley Point C could be delayed to 2031 and cost up to £35bn, says EDF
As nuclear plant is hit by further delay, real cost will be far higher after inflation is included, as project uses 2015 prices
Guardian, Alex Lawson, Wed 24 Jan 2024
The owner of Hinkley Point C has blamed inflation, Covid and Brexit as it announced the nuclear power plant project could be delayed by a further four years, and cost £2.3bn more.
The plant in Somerset, which has been under construction since 2016, is now expected to be finished by 2031 and cost up to £35bn, France’s EDF said. However, the cost will be far higher once inflation is taken into account, because EDF is using 2015 prices.
The latest in a series of setbacks represents a huge delay to the project’s initial timescale. In 2007, the then EDF chief executive Vincent de Rivaz said that by Christmas in 2017, turkeys would be cooked using electricity generated from atomic power at Hinkley. When the project was finally given the green light in 2016, its cost was estimated at £18bn…………
Crooks said: “Running the project longer will cost more money and our budget has also been affected by rising civil construction costs. It is important to say that British consumers or taxpayers won’t pay a penny, with the increased costs met entirely by shareholders.”
EDF had previously said that the first reactor unit at the nuclear site would be due to be complete by June 2027, with a 15-month buffer period which was likely to be used – putting its completion at September 2028, and a further year for the second unit. It costs were estimated between £25bn and £26bn, and this was later revised up to £32.7bn in February 2023
EDF gave three scenarios, ranging from becoming operational is 2029, to delays pushing this back to 2031.
It said that the cost of completing Hinkley will be between £31bn and £34bn, although if completion is delayed to 2031 costs would rise to £35bn.
In December it emerged EDF’s partner in the project, China General Nuclear, had halted funding for Hinkley. The move came after the government took over CGN’s stake in Hinkley’s proposed sister site, Sizewell C in Suffolk, stripping the Chinese state-owned company of its role in the project.
The latest financial estimates are based on accounting in 2015 figures, meaning the total cost of the project could be far higher when inflation over the last decade is factored in. Hinkley’s ballooning costs have proved controversial with French taxpayers, which are picking up the tab.
Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C are expected to herald a new era of nuclear plants touted by the government.
Last year the government launched a delivery body, Great British Nuclear, with the aim of accelerating the development of new nuclear projects. Earlier this month ministers set out plans for out for the “biggest nuclear power expansion in 70 years”.
However, the Hinkley Point C delay will add to concerns over project delays and costs, as well as skills in an industry earmarked to deliver a quarter of the national electricity demand by 2050………………..
EDF said in January it would delay the shutdown of four of its UK nuclear reactors for at least two years and increase investment in its British nuclear fleet. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/23/hinkley-point-c-could-be-delayed-to-2031-and-cost-up-to-35bn-says-edf—
EDF’s UK Hinkley Nuclear Costs Balloon as Plant Delayed Again – an “unmitigated disaster”?
A government spokesperson said the new plant is “not a government project” and as such “any additional costs or schedule overruns are the responsibility of EDF and its partners and will in no way fall on taxpayers”.
The government has also just doubled its own investment into Sizewell C to £2.5bn and is in the process of raising capital from private investors.
A government spokesperson said the new plant is “not a government project” and as such “any additional costs or schedule overruns are the responsibility of EDF and its partners and will in no way fall on taxpayers”.
The government has also just doubled its own investment into Sizewell C to £2.5bn and is in the process of raising capital from private investors.
Hinkley C: UK nuclear plant price tag could rocket by a third.
By Simon Jack, Business editor
The final cost of the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant being built in Somerset may soar by about a third, according to the French firm developing it.
EDF now estimates that the cost could hit £46bn, when taking price rises into account.
The completion date could also be delayed by three years………………………………
The French state-owned firm manages all five nuclear power stations that are currently generating electricity in the UK, along with three that are defueling, the first stage of winding down operations.
In 2022, the cost of the UK’s first new nuclear plant since the 1990s was estimated at £26bn, with a target date for completion of June 2027.
Previous cost estimates have been expressed in 2015 prices for easy comparison over time.
But taking inflation into account, the previous estimate on final costs of £26bn works out at £34bn today. The updated estimate of £31-35bn, could see costs hit £46bn in today’s prices – an increase of about a third.
In a letter to staff, seen by the BBC, Stuart Crooks, the managing director of Hinkley Point C, said there were 7,000 substantial design changes required by British regulations that needed to be made to the site, with 35% more steel and 25% more concrete needed than originally planned.
The revised estimates come after the government recently announced ambitions for the biggest expansion in nuclear power for 70 years.
The UK government has said in the past it wants nuclear to provide up to 25% of the UK’s electricity needs by 2050 as part of its plans to combat climate change.
A government spokesperson said the new plant is “not a government project” and as such “any additional costs or schedule overruns are the responsibility of EDF and its partners and will in no way fall on taxpayers”…………………………………….
Stuart Crooks, the managing director of Hinkley Point C, pointed out, however, that UK bill payers will not be directly affected by those building and cost time overruns.
The French firm EDF agreed to shoulder the risk and pay the full cost of construction, including any increases. This was in return for an agreed electricity price that was substantially higher than the average price in 2015 and would only rise in line with inflation.
“It is important to say that British consumers or taxpayers won’t pay a penny, with the increased costs met entirely by shareholders,” Mr Crooks’ letter read.
However, this price shock comes at a sensitive time for the UK government, which has agreed to allow construction costs for a new plant at Sizewell in Suffolk to be added to customers’ bills gradually over the decade which it will take to build.
The government has also just doubled its own investment into Sizewell C to £2.5bn and is in the process of raising capital from private investors.
Last week, the government triggered a “development consent order” that allows early-stage construction to begin in Suffolk despite several legal challenges from local and national opponents who have taken their fight to the Supreme Court.
Alison Downes of the campaign group Stop Sizewell C said that the announcement of additional funding was”inexplicable” following news of delays to one of the government’s key nuclear projects.
She described the Hinkley and Sizewell projects as an “unmitigated disaster”.
“The government should cancel Sizewell C instead of handing over scarce billions that could be used instead for renewables, energy efficiency or – in this [general] election year – schools and hospitals,” she added……………….. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68073279
UK’s flagship nuclear plant could cost up to $59 billion, developer says
A major nuclear plant that Britain’s government hopes will generate affordable, low-carbon energy could cost up to 46 billion pounds, or $59 billion, and the completion date could be delayed to after 2029
abc news, By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press, January 25, 2024
LONDON — A major nuclear plant that Britain’s government hopes will generate affordable, low-carbon energy could cost up to 46 billion pounds ($59 billion), and the completion date could be delayed to after 2029, the firm developing it said Wednesday.
The U.K. government says nuclear projects like the Hinkley Point C plant are a key part of its plans to ensure greater energy independence and achieve its “net zero” by 2050 strategy.
But a re-evaluation showed that the final bill for the plant, being built in Somerset in southwest England, could soar to up to 34 billion pounds in 2015 prices — or 43 billion pounds in current value, French energy giant EDF said…………………………………. https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/uks-flagship-nuclear-plant-cost-59-billion-developer-106635464
As Trump looms, top EU politician calls for European nuclear deterrent
Center-right leader Manfred Weber says EU needs to prepare for war without US help and must build its own atomic shield.
Politico, BY JAKOB HANKE VELA AND NICOLAS CAMUT, JANUARY 25, 2024
Facing the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House, the head of the EU’s biggest political grouping is calling for Europeans to prepare for war without support from the United States and to build its own nuclear umbrella.
Manfred Weber, leader of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) — currently tipped to come first in the European Parliament election in June — described Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as “the two who set the framework” for 2024.
Trump’s seemingly imminent coronation as Republican presidential contender after wins in Iowa and New Hampshire have spooked Europe, where he is remembered as a NATO skeptic, accusing EU countries of not paying their way and threatening not to come to Europe’s defense if it were attacked………………………………………… more https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-nuclear-warfare-detterence-manfred-weber-vladimir-putin-ukraine-russia-war/
Berkshire nuclear defence workers strike
Planet Radio 24 Jan 24
Workers at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston and Burghfield are on a 24-hour strike after two months of other forms of industrial action in a dispute over pay.
Action short of a strike started in mid-November and will re-commence on Thursday January 25. ……………………………………….https://planetradio.co.uk/greatest-hits/berkshire-north-hampshire/news/workers-awe-aldermaston-burghfield-strike/
France presses UK to help fill multibillion-pound hole in nuclear projects
Call comes day after EDF flagged more delays of construction of power plant at Hinkley Point
Sarah White in Paris and Jim Pickard and Rachel Millard in London, 25 Jan 24, https://www.ft.com/content/3320c06e-7ce3-4a6b-ab22-4b8201a4cfca
The French government is pressing the UK to help plug a multibillion-pound hole in the budget of nuclear power projects being built in Britain by France’s electricity operator EDF. The call for a contribution from the UK is likely to cause tensions between Paris and London, a day after state-owned EDF admitted its construction of a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset would suffer further costly delays, taking the bill to as much as £46bn. The UK has said it will not put cash into the project, which counts EDF as a majority shareholder, and is already backed by a government guarantee on its revenues once it is up and running.
But Paris is pushing for a “global solution” that would also encompass funding issues at another planned UK plant, Sizewell C, said a French economy ministry official and another person close to the talks. “It’s a Franco-British matter,” the French economy ministry official said. “The British government cannot at the same time say EDF has to figure it out alone on Hinkley Point and at the same time ask EDF to put money into Sizewell. We’re determined to find a global solution to see these projects through.”
Sizewell in Suffolk has a different financial set-up to Hinkley. The UK this week said it would inject another £800mn of state funds, bringing its total contribution to £2.5bn at the £20bn plant, where it is the top shareholder. Its partner EDF has no obligation to put more money in. French officials said discussions on various options had begun several months ago with British counterparts, although they acknowledged London had flagged budgetary constraints that would have to be taken into account. In the UK, a government official played down the talks, adding that on Hinkley Point: “Costs will be the responsibility of EDF.”
An EDF executive told the BBC on Wednesday that the French company picks up “the tab for the cost overruns”. EDF on Tuesday warned Hinkley Point would not now be completed until 2029 at the earliest, four years later than its original start date, while the two reactors could cost up to £46bn to build at today’s prices, compared with a £18bn budget in 2016.
Other factors might play into the discussions, however. Under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Britain took the political initiative to eject Chinese group CGN as an investor in Sizewell — leaving that project in need of fresh private capital, but also prompting CGN to pull back from Hinkley, where it is a 33.5 per cent shareholder. The Chinese group has fulfilled its contracted payments on Hinkley but has no obligation to fund over-costs and stopped doing so a few months ago.
“The French don’t have many levers here but the CGN issue is a very real one,” a third person close to the talks said. Finding private investors to make up the Hinkley shortfall may be tough, several people close to the group said, although formulas such as state guarantees could be discussed. EDF is only just coming out of a period of financial turmoil, and has big investments to make at home, too, in the coming decades. It was fully renationalised last year
“Our goal here . . . is for what’s happening at Hinkley Point, with the delays and the issue with the Chinese partner’s decision, not to impact EDF’s financial trajectory excessively,” the French economy ministry official said. However, one UK nuclear industry figure said that EDF’s plight at Hinkley was the consequence of signing up to a deal with the UK government a decade ago, which at the time was criticised for being too generous to the French group. Under a so-called contract for difference signed with the state, construction costs are not covered but future electricity production is backed up by subsidies in case power prices fall below a certain threshold.
UK nuclear plant hit by new multiyear delay and could cost up to £46bn.
Britain’s flagship Hinkley Point C nuclear plant has been delayed until
2029 at the earliest, with the cost spiralling to as much as £46bn, in the
latest blow to a project at the heart of the country’s long-term energy
plans.
The surging bill and slipping schedule, announced on Tuesday by the
French state-owned operator and constructor EDF, will put pressure on the
UK government to provide extra financial support for the project.
EDF, which has also experienced long delays on recent parallel projects in
Finland and France that use the same reactor technology, blamed the latest
problems at Hinkley in Somerset on the complexity of installing
electromechanical systems and intricate piping. Hinkley was previously
delayed due to construction disruption during Covid pandemic.
Under EDF’s latest scenario, one of the two planned reactors at Hinkley Point C could
be ready in 2029, a two-year hold-up compared with the company’s previous
estimate of 2027. But it could be further delayed to 2031 in adverse
conditions, EDF said. It did not give an estimate for the second reactor.
EDF said the cost would now be between £31bn-£35bn based on 2015 prices,
depending on when Hinkley Point C was completed.
In today’s prices, the cost would balloon to as much as £46bn. The initial budget was £18bn, with a scheduled completion date of 2025. Alison Downes of Stop Sizewell C, a
campaign group opposed to the planned Suffolk nuclear plant, said EDF was
an “unmitigated disaster”. She added the UK government should cancel
Sizewell C, saying state funding for the project could be better spent on
“renewables, energy efficiency or, in this election year, schools and
hospitals”.
FT 23rd Jan 2024
https://www.ft.com/content/1157591c-d514-4520-aa17-158349203abd
EDF’s UK Hinkley Nuclear Costs Balloon as Plant Delayed Again
Francois de Beaupuy, Bloomberg News, Jan 23, 2024
(Bloomberg) — Electricite de France SA’s nuclear project at Hinkley Point in the UK will cost as much as £10 billion ($13 billion) extra to build and take several years longer than planned, the latest in a series of setbacks for the budget and timetable of the country’s largest energy project.
EDF now expects the two reactors it’s building in southwest England to cost between £31 billion and £35 billion in 2015 terms, the French energy company said in a statement on Tuesday. That’s up from an estimate of £25 billion to £26 billion in 2022, and is the fifth budget increase in eight years. At today’s prices, the project would cost as much as £46 billion, according to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator. …………………
The UK is struggling to get its huge nuclear program off the ground. The government is aiming for as much as 24 gigawatts of capacity by 2050 and will have to accelerate rapidly to achieve that. Hinkley Point will be the first new atomic station to start generating in Britain since 1995. Construction of complex nuclear plants is notoriously slow, and the cost overruns and delays at Hinkley may damp investor enthusiasm for the sector…………………………………..
The setback comes just one day after the UK government pledged to invest an additional £1.3 billion in EDF’s second UK project at Sizewell C. Ministers are hoping the commitment will attract enough private capital to make a final investment decision this year and make progress toward its ambitious 2050 target.
EDF was already struggling with the budget for Hinkley after China General Nuclear Power Corp, its partner in the project, stopped funding, potentially leaving the French company to foot the bill until it is completed. The government-owned French company will also have to spend tens of billions of euros on new atomic plants at home in the coming decades.
Hinkley Point C is not a French government project and so any additional costs or schedule overruns are the responsibility of EDF and its partners and will in no way fall on taxpayers, said a spokesperson for the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
…….. EDF’s current fleet of five nuclear plants is scheduled to shrink to just three by the end of 2026. Last year, output slumped to the lowest in more than four decades.
While rising costs of metals, cement and labor are affecting industries including large offshore wind projects, the revised plan may revive a controversy over how expensive the technology is and whether further delays are inevitable. Still, the UK government said this month that the country will build another large-scale nuclear power plant, beyond current projects led by EDF.
t’s not the first time Hinkley has ballooned beyond its budget. EDF increased its estimates in 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2022 from an initial estimate of £18 billion when the contract was signed with the UK in 2016.
At the start of the project, the French utility expected the first unit to start by the end of 2025. However, Brexit, the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine have disrupted supply chains and boosted the cost of labor and essential materials like steel and cement.
“Going first to restart the nuclear construction industry in Britain after a 20-year pause has been hard,” said Stuart Crooks, Managing Director for Hinkley Point C. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/edf-s-uk-hinkley-nuclear-costs-balloon-as-plant-delayed-again-1.2025542
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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