A project to build a nuclear power station near Sellafield in Cumbria could begin generating electricity in 2025, a year earlier than the scheme proposed for Hinkley Point by EDF. NuGen, a venture between Toshiba, of Japan, and France’s Engie – formerly GDF Suez – plans to have three reactors up and running within nine years. If the schedule is correct, NuGen would overtake EDF, which has repeatedly delayed plans for its £18 billion plant in Somerset. If built, the project would be the first nuclear plant in Britain since Sizewell B, which entered service in 1995. NuGen plans three AP1000 pressurised water reactors at the site in Cumbria, using an established nuclear technology. The project could supply up to 3.8 gigawatts, about 7 per cent of UK electricity.
Times 19th May 2016 read more »
NuGen expects electricity generation to start at its new nuclear project in Cumbria, Britain in 2025, the company said on Wednesday. The time frame means NuGen’s project could over-take EDF’s Hinkley C as the first new nuclear plant operating in the country in a generation. “These projects are coming up together at roughly the same time,” Robert Armour, Deputy chairman of NuGen said on the sidelines of a Platts nuclear conference. Paul Spence, director of strategy at EDF’s British subsidiary EDF Energy, said at the event the company still expects generation to start at Hinkley C in 2025. EDF last week said the project would take 9.5 years to build once a decision has been taken. This means if the decision is taken in September, as suggested by Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, Hinkley C would start up at the earliest in spring 2026. NuGen still has to secure approval for its AP1000 reactor under the country’s Generic Design Assessment approval process, which Armour said should be complete by the first quarter of 2017. A final investment decision will then be taken on the project in 2018, he said. A third new nuclear plant, Hitachi’s Horizon, is also slated to start production in Britain in the 2020s.
Reuters 18th May 2016 read more »