EDF under pressure to abandon Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant project in UK

• 8 years ago (2016-02-16)
• David Flin

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EDF is under pressure to abandon or delay building Hinkley Point C, the flagship of the UK Government’s plan to provide generating capacity for 2025. The Board of EDF is expected to postpone a decision once again on whether to commit to the £18.6 billion project, which is supposed to provide 7 per cent of Britain’s electricity by 2025.

Alan Raymant, Chief Operating Officer of Horizon Nuclear Power , said that Hinkley Point C was having a knock-on impact on its plans to build two reactors at Wylfa on Anglesey, Wales, followed by two reactors at Oldbury, Gloucestershire. Both plants would use the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) design. He said that to achieve completion by 2025, a final investment decision on the plant would need to be made “in early 2019”, giving Horizon three years to: gain planning consent; get safety approval for the ABWR; arrange a Government subsidy contract; receive state aid clearance from the EU; and secure finance from investors.

Additionally, China General Nuclear Corporation’s (CGN) plan to build a new reactor at Bradwell will be under threat if the Hinkley Point C project is stalled. CGN is due to take a 33.5 per cent stake in Hinkley Point C as a condition of building the Hualong reactor at Bradwell. This would be the first commercial construction of the Hualong reactor.

Finally, Nugen’s planned three reactor project at Moorside in Cumbria is under threat, because of uncertainty over the AP1000 reactor design, which is facing multi-year delays and cost over-runs at sites in the USA and China.