The troubled engineering giant Toshiba is preparing to mothball its project to build a £15bn-plus nuclear power station in Cumbria. NuGen, the company developing the plant planned for Moorside on the Cumbrian coast, has written to suppliers to warn them it will have to slash spending amid financial turbulence at its Japanese owner. It is also set to order staff who have been seconded to the project from other companies to return to their employers. The 3.4 gigawatt plant had been due to plug into the grid by 2026. However, it has been thrown into doubt by Toshiba’s financial crisis. The Japanese industrial giant has been hammered by ballooning costs on two nuclear reactor projects in America. Toshiba has put Westinghouse – the reactor maker it bought from the British government in 2006 – into bankruptcy in the US. Westinghouse had been due to install three of its AP1000 reactors at Moorside. Toshiba is also trying to sell the NuGen project to Korea Electric Power Corp, but the state-backed company is believed to favour installing its own reactors at Moorside. Doing so would set the project back by at least three years, requiring it to obtain regulatory approval from the nuclear watchdog. It would also have to launch a new consultation with the local community. The French power giant Engie, which owned a 40% stake in NuGen, has triggered a clause that forces Toshiba to buy back its share of the project. NuGen’s woes increase the pressure on Tokyo to strike a deal over Japan’s other British nuclear project – the Horizon plant planned by Hitachi for Wylfa in Anglesey. Hiroaki Nakanishi, boss of the engineering giant, met UK government ministers last week the discuss the project. NuGen said it was “undertaking a strategic review of its options following shareholder and vendor challenges” but remains a “key player within the UK nuclear industry”. It added: “NuGen is confident that the review will lead to an outcome that provides a more robust, stable and sustainable platform to meet their commitment to deliver the next generation of nuclear baseload [power] for the UK.”
Times 30th April 2017 read more »