Andy Blowers asks if the hectic activity over the Bradwell nuclear project represents the dénouement or merely another stage in a long journey towards an unpredictable end game. Since the beginning of this year, during the coronavirus emergency, the conflict over a new nuclear power station at Bradwell has come to a head. This is not the first culmination experienced. The came late in 2007 when Bradwell was identified as a ‘possible site’ – and led to the formation of BANNG. Then came the site selection process with Bradwell listed as a ‘potentially suitable’ site in 2011. In 2015, the ‘Golden Relationship’ with China was sealed with the offer to China to seek regulatory approval to build their own reactors at the site. This time feels different and may presage the end of the affair rather than a hiatus. Three matters, each with profound implications for Bradwell B, have seamlessly and simultaneously intertwined, each a setback for CGN (the developer) but which together deal a possibly fatal blow to Chinese ambitions on the Blackwater.

BANNG 12th Aug 2020 read more »

THERE was turmoil at a Maldon District Council meeting yesterday (Thursday, 13 August) when it was abandoned during a row between councillors over whether some of the debate on plans for a nuclear power station at Bradwell should be held in public or private. The virtual meeting had three major planning applications on the agenda – with a planned exclusion of the public and press after the first while councillors heard ‘exempt information’ on the two applications listed last on the agenda – including the power station plan. Independent Councillor Chrisy Morris then objected to the exclusion of the public and press. He argued that the entire discussion of the Bradwell plans should be heard in public and demanded a committee vote on whether to continue in private or not. Chair of the meeting, Deputy Leader and Conservative Councillor Maddie Thompson, did not agree and the discussion became heated before public and press access to the live stream was cut off. The meeting was not resumed later as planned. A spokesperson for Maldon District Council said: ““Due to the continued interruptions during the meeting, the Deputy Leader decided that the best option was to call a halt to the meeting. Discussions are currently taking place as to when this meeting can be reconvened.” In a statement after the meeting, Cllr Morris said: “The councillors quite overwhelmingly refused these applications and we asked the officers to make our objections watertight if the applicants were to appeal. It appears that they instead decided to seek legal advice that would make our objections seem unreasonable at appeal in an attempt to change our minds – my personal opinion is this is bullying. “I am against hearing this advice in private as if an attempt to bully us is made – the public have a right to know. I believe that once there was a possibility that this bullying attempt was going to be in the public domain, they used it to shut the meeting. “I am here to represent the wishes of the people and will not be bullied. The public has a right to know.”

Maldon Nub News 14th Aug 2020 read more »

The Chancellor refuses to rule out a U-turn on the involvement of China in the building of the Bradwell nuclear power station in Essex. Tom Swarbrick asked Chancellor Rishi Sunak if the Government would still allow a Chinese state-owned nuclear power company to build a nuclear power plant at Bradwell, in Essex. Rishi Sunak said the Government’s position hasn’t changed adding “decisions haven’t been made” for the project. The Chancellor said the Business Secretary would be the lead minister on this issue and he thought a paper would be published on it in Autumn. When LBC host Tom asked if the Chancellor thought Chinese president Xi Jinping was a “reliable partner,” Mr Sunak said he thought the UK should have an “eyes wide open relationship with China.” He added the country was “obviously important to us in many ways” for supply of goods and as a trading partner. But, the senior Minister said, “we should be eyes wide open where we have different values and interests and we should be robust in standing up for those things.” The Chancellor cited Huawei as an example of the Government taking “quite strong, and significant action over time.”

LBC 7th Aug 2020 read more »

Part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult alliance of seven leading manufacturing research centres backed by Innovate UK, the Nuclear AMRC (Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre) has at its heart an open-plan 5,000m2 workshop containing over £35 million worth of ‘state of the art’ manufacturing equipment tailored for nuclear industry applications. Working with a range of ‘challenging metals’, including specialist steels and exotic alloys, its machine tools are ‘protected’ by Vericut CNC simulation and optimisation software from Hove-based CGTech Ltd. Located on the boundary of Sheffield and Rotherham — and sitting alongside other University of Sheffield centres including the AMRC, Castings Technology International and nearby AMRC Training Centre — the Nuclear AMRC operates from an 8,000m2 research factory where staff apply “innovative and optimised processes” in machining, welding, inspection and other key areas of large-scale manufacturing technology.

Machinery Market 8th Aug 2020 read more »

In its decision of 28 July 2020, France’s Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) Enforcement Committee fined EDF €5 million ($5.9m) for disseminating false information in a news release in October 2014. It also imposed a fine of €50,000 on former EDF Chairman and CEO Henri Proglio. However, it dismissed a breach alleged against EDF of failing to disclose insider information promptly, and cleared its current Chairman and CEO of this charge. After acquiring British Energy in 2009, EDF launched a construction project for a nuclear plant with two European pressurised reactors (EPRs) at the Hinkley Point C site in Somerset in the UK. In October 2013, EDF announced an agreement with the British government on the key commercial terms of the contracts relating to the project, including the confirmation that the project would receive a financing guarantee from the British government, according to terms and conditions to be defined. However, in the October 2014 announcing European Commission approval of the agreement under State aid rules, EDF said, “the main elements of the agreements of October 2013 remained unchanged […]”. The Enforcement Committee found that there had in fact been significant changes to the financing plan by guaranteed debt, and that EDF had therefore “disseminated false information likely to set the share price at an abnormal or artificial level”. The Enforcement Committee, which is made up of judges and professionals and has total freedom to make decisions, said an appeal may be lodged against this decision.

Nuclear Engineering International 6th Aug 2020 read more »

Nuclear power, please? Great Britain is planning a second generation nuclear power plant – just a few hundred kilometers from Germany as the crow flies. Britain is relying on nuclear power to become climate neutral by 2050. The first new nuclear power plant, Hinkley Point C, is under construction, with the second to follow soon. The approval process for Sizewell C is currently underway in the south-east English county of Suffolk – just 300 kilometers from the German border as the crow flies. The deadline for the participation of the federal government, the federal states and the German public in the cross-border environmental impact assessment (EIA) expires on August 19. The chairman of the Bundestag Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Sylvia Kotting-Uhl (Greens), complained that the British environmental report was confusing and not available in German. “The UK is again trying to escape its commitments, this time in an insidious way,” she said. In mid-July, Kotting-Uhl asked the federal government whether they were considering taking part in the EIA process. “In a previous screening process, the UK had determined that this new development had no cross-border environmental impact,” the response said. But on the website of the Ministry “the contact details of the British authority have been published so that interested individuals or associations can register directly with the competent authority”.

Taz 6th Aug 2020 read more »

Proponents of the proposed EPR nuclear power station at Sizewell on the Suffolk coast are ramping up calls for the government to give the project the go ahead, saying tens of thousands of jobs are at stake, while critics say the project is too expensive and unnecessary. The relatively higher cost of nuclear over renewables, such as wind, has prompted opponents to call for the scrapping of the technology in Britain altogether. According to Lazard, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for nuclear is around $118 to $192 per MWh compared to $28 to $54 per MWh for wind and between $44 and $68 for combined cycle gas. EDF provides a Strike Price for Hinkley C, under the UK’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) mechanism, at £92.5 (around $120) per MWh at 2012 prices. Given this price is index-linked, the current price for Hinkley C has ramped to about £110, says Paul Dorfman, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Energy Institute, University College London (UCL). “The question is, at these prices, is it Game Over for nuclear in the UK?” asks Dorfman. Under the expected Regulated Asset Base (RAB) funding model for Sizewell C, it would be British tax payer picking up the bill as the project goes over costs, Dorfman adds.

Nuclear Energy Insider 5th Aug 2020 read more »

China tensions raise doubts over UK nuclear projects. Flushed with their success at changing UK government policy towards Huawei, rebel Conservative MPs are now turning their attention to a proposed Chinese project to build a nuclear power station at Bradwell-on-Sea in the south-east of England. In their sights is an agreement forged by the government of David Cameron, that would allow the Chinese nuclear group CGN to build its own nuclear plant in return for backing two giant French-led nuclear projects in Britain. The first of those French projects — a plant at Hinkley Point in the south west of England that could cost £22.5bn — is well under way and CGN has already pumped billions into the scheme. “There are an awful lot of Tory MPs who will use their summer break to get their heads around the CGN situation,” said one person close to the rebel MPs. “Bradwell will be the focus of attention.” Just as with the decision to remove telecoms company Huawei from Britain’s 5G mobile phone networks by 2027, they are being encouraged by a US administration vocal in its opposition to China’s involvement in Britain’s nuclear programme. In 2018, the US assistant secretary for international security and non-proliferation, Christopher Ashley Ford, warned the UK against partnering with the company, saying Washington had evidence it was taking civilian technology and converting it to military uses. CGN declined to comment. The senior Tory MP, Iain Duncan Smith has called for a review of nuclear contracts on the grounds that China is not a “trusted vendor”, and has likened Britain’s commercial dealings with Beijing to 1930s appeasement. The closer scrutiny of China’s role in Britain’s nuclear programme comes at a crucial moment. The UK’s Committee on Climate Change has said that the country might need 38 per cent of its power from non-weather-dependent sources to help achieve “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050. Supporters of nuclear say it is the only proven technology capable of delivering that target. “Nuclear economics are very sensitive to the cost of capital, and the RAB or an equivalent funding mechanism would cut this dramatically,” said Tim Stone, chairman of the UK’s Nuclear Industry Association. “Direct funding by the state with interest rates so low would cut it a great deal more.” “The big question is: if CGN were chucked out of Bradwell, whether they would walk from Hinkley,” said Stephen Thomas, emeritus professor of energy policy at University of Greenwich. “They are contractually obliged but good luck suing the Chinese government.” Aside from the financing questions, this could potentially increase the construction risk at Hinkley. “The Chinese have an engineering role in the project,” said one nuclear expert. “It would be a blow if they took away that know-how.” Ministers are yet to deliver their verdict on the RAB funding model and have continuously delayed a white paper on energy, originally expected last year, and which nuclear industry executives hope will emerge in October.

FT 6th Aug 2020 read more »