Betting on the French will not keep Britain’s lights on, EDF’s latest Hinkley Point delay shows PM’s nuclear ambitions are divorced from reality. It is testament to the sheer incompetence of France’s state-backed utility EDF that Hinkley Point C has become Britain’s most radioactive construction project and it hasn’t even been built yet. In fact, one wonders if it ever will be at this rate after yet more delays and cost overruns. For critics of atomic energy, Hinkley Point is the gift that keeps on giving. For the rest of the country it remains laughably elusive. After repeated setbacks, Britain’s first new plant in three decades was already scheduled to be nine years overdue and £7bn over budget having been pushed back to 2026, while estimated build costs had rocketed to £23bn. And now? An announcement from EDF, snuck out at 10pm on Thursday night, reveals that the project has been delayed by another year at best, and will cost a further £3bn, with Covid the excruciatingly predictable excuse being provided. It is the fourth time that EDF has had to revise the timetable and budget since construction began in October 2016. At this point, any suggestion that the Prime Minister’s recently announced ambition to build 24 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity, equivalent to another six Hinkleys, each costing £20bn, have any chance of being realised should be banished. Ministers are taking us for fools with these grandiose yet delusional schemes. Like so many of this Government’s plans to transform important areas of the economy, Britain’s nuclear ambitions are totally divorced from reality, and will remain so while we continue to depend on the same unreliable partner with a risible track record of delivering on its promises. It’s not just Hinkley where EDF has fallen short. Attempts to build the Neart na Gaoithe wind farm off Scotland’s Firth of Forth on the country’s east coast in partnership with Ireland’s ESB have suffered a series of delays. But it is in France where the major red flags can be found. EDF’s flagship Flamanville plant in Normandy, which is being built using the same European Pressurised Reactors (EPR) that are set to be deployed at Hinkley, was originally meant to come on line in 2009. Instead, it won’t be ready until 2023, nearly a decade and a half later than originally planned, and is £10bn over budget after costs quadrupled from initial estimates in 2004. Yet Flamanville is just one of many plants where EDF is experiencing problems. The company has been forced to launch a programme of checks on its entire fleet of 56 nuclear reactors after the discovery of corrosion caused outages at some. A total of 12 are offline, exacerbating a perilous financial squeeze as it prepares to spearhead Emmanuel Macron’s plans to put nuclear power at the heart of his country’s pursuit of carbon neutrality by 2050. And yet, incredibly, EDF harbours ambitions to build another plant in the UK, at Sizewell C in Suffolk.
Telegraph 21st May 2022 read more »
The risks to the government’s plans to build another eight nuclear power plants have been underlined by the latest wave of ballooning costs and delays at Hinkley Point C. EDF, which is constructing the 3,200MW reactor in Somerset, has warned that estimated costs have jumped to between £25 billion and £26 billion, while the power station will not now start producing electricity until June 2027 at the earliest. The revised estimates are £3 billion higher than the previous cost projections in January last year, which were in turn well ahead of the group’s initial £18 billion forecast when the project was approved in 2016. Hinkley is Britain’s first new nuclear plant in decades. It is expected to power six million homes, with the government guaranteeing that consumers pay an index-linked £92.50 per megawatt hour, in 2012 prices, for its electricity. Construction costs are being met by EDF and its junior partner in the project, CGN of China. Critics seized on the latest overruns to point out the risks to Boris Johnson’s blueprint for another 24 gigawatts of new nuclear power by 2050. The Stop Sizewell C lobby group pointed out that, while EDF and CGN are on the hook for Hinkley’s “rocketing costs”, a proposed new financing model would see consumers paying upfront via higher bills for cost overruns. “The £20 billion estimate for Sizewell C is already two years out of date, with zero chance of it being delivered at that cost,” it said, noting that the risk of spiralling costs would “fall on consumers”. Doug Parr, Greenpeace’s UK policy director, said: “The government’s big bet on nuclear is backfiring with every extra billion added to the bill”. He advocated investment in offshore wind instead. Costs at the prototype for Hinkley, the Flamanville plant in France, have rocketed from €3.3 billion to €12.7 billion. Construction is running more than a decade late.
Times 20th May 2022 read more »
The boss of Hinkley Point C has blamed pandemic disruption after admitting the new nuclear power station will start operating a year later than planned and will cost an extra £3bn. French energy company EDF said the first reactor unit at the Somerset site is now scheduled to start operating in June 2027, a year later than planned, with costs estimated between £25bn and £26bn. EDF said this would not affect the cost to British consumers or taxpayers. The costs will be met by EDF and China’s CGN, which is a junior partner in the project. EDF has also seen rising costs at its Flamanville 3 plant in France, which is more than a decade behind its original schedule. The energy giant hopes to construct another nuclear plant at Sizewell C in Suffolk using the same technology as at Hinkley Point. Last week, a decision on whether to grant the plant planning permission due this month was delayed until 8 July. Alison Downes of Suffolk campaign group Stop Sizewell C said: “Sizewell C is risky, expensive and in no one’s interest except EDF’s.” Shares in EDF fell this week after it issued a profit warning due to outages at its nuclear power plants.
Guardian 20th May 2022 read more »
Hinkley Point C nuclear power station delayed again and at further £3bn cost. EDF Energy, which had already hinted at a fresh delay, does not rule out further disruption to construction schedules. Completion of the Hinkley Point C power station, the UK’s first new nuclear plant in decades, has been delayed again by around another year, meaning it will now be a decade behind its original schedule. EDF Energy, the company behind the project, said it was pushing back the date for generation to start to June 2027. It estimated the projected cost would now be in the range of £25bn-£26bn.
Sky News 20th May 2022 read more »
PM Today 20th May 2022 read more »
New Civil Engineer 20th May 2022 read more »
France24 20th May 2022 read more »
Independent 20th May 2022 read more »
Building 20th May 2022 read more »
NS Energy 20th May 2022 read more »
£3 billion more, 1 year longer: EDF Energy announces latest price hike and further delay at Hinkley Point C. Whilst news that yet another civil nuclear power plant is to be delivered still further over-budget and still further behind schedule may be ‘par for the course’, the Nuclear Free Local Authorities still find EDF’s latest pronouncement that Hinkley Point C will cost £3 billion more and take one year longer to build shocking. In a media release yesterday (Thursday 19 May), the French parent of UK nuclear operator, EDF Energy, conceded that, on their latest estimate, Hinkley Point C will now cost £25 to 26 billion to build and become operational no earlier than July 2027. EDF last updated its Hinkley Point construction schedule in January 2021, when it stated the plant would be delayed by a further six months to June 2026 with the cost rising by an additional half billion pounds to £22 billion to 23 billion. NFLA Chair Councillor David Blackburn commented: “EDF Energy have blamed COVID and the Ukraine conflict for the price hike and the delay, but Hinkley Point C was already way over budget and way behind schedule before either of these calamities occurred. For the simple reality is that nuclear costs too much and takes too long”.
NFLA 20th May 2022 read more »
The Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant is facing a further year delay and an additional £3bn of costs, according to an update from developer EDF. The company today published a review of the project, confirming that pandemic related disruption had resulted in the timetable slipping once again for the high-profile project. The latest delay means the first reactor unit is now scheduled to start operating in June 2027, a year later than previous planned, with costs estimated to reach between £25bn and £26bn. The company said the over-runs would have no impact on the cost borne by British consumers or taxpayers. Reacting to the news, Greenpeace UK’s policy director Doug Parr, said the latest delays and “spiralling costs” were “becoming more predictable than the rising sun”. “If the UK had directed as much investment to offshore wind as it has on Hinkley Point C we could have generated more than three times as much power, and we’d be getting it in a fraction of the time,” he said. “The government’s big bet on nuclear is backfiring with every extra billion added to the bill.” The update came on the same day as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published a report which said the terms of the 2009 sale of seven nuclear power stations to EDF Energy had “placed a disproportionate amount of risk for meeting future decommissioning costs on the taxpayer”, and argued that failures in the government’s investment strategy for the Nuclear Liabilities Fund have already seen the taxpayer having to top it by an additional £10.7bn in just two years.
Business Green 20th May 2022 read more »
The project completion costs are now estimated in the range of £25Bn to £26Bn (2015) – Costs net of operational action plans, in 2015 sterling, excluding interim interest. Under the terms of the Contract for Difference, there is no impact for UK consumers.
EDF 19th May 2022 read more »