New delay and skyrocketing cost for EDF’s EPR reactors in England – 05/20/2022 at 15:15

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The construction site of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant on April 7, 2022 in Bridgwater, UK (POOL / Finnbarr Webster)

Additional delays and costs: the site of the EPR nuclear power plant built by EDF at Hinkley Point in England is experiencing a new slippage that the British government however minimized on Friday.

The start-up of the first reactor is now planned “in June 2027”, revealed the French energy company in a press release on Thursday night.

The plant, under construction since 2016 in Sommerset (south-west England), was initially scheduled to start at the end of 2025, a schedule already postponed last year to June 2026.

For the two units, the risk of delay is now “evaluated at 15 months”, provided that there is no new pandemic or additional effect of the war in Ukraine, according to EDF which quantifies the new additional cost of the construction costing at least 3 billion pounds (approximately EUR 3.5 billion).

The plant should indeed cost “between 25 and 26 billion pounds sterling”, against 18 billion expected in 2016 during the green light from London, an amount already reassessed between 22 and 23 billion pounds.

The British government reacted by saying it wanted to continue to “work closely with EDF to finalize Hinkley Point C” and stressing that the additional cost would not fall on taxpayers.

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The control center training room at Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, Bridgwater on April 7, 2022 (POOL/Finnbarr Webster)

The control center training room at Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, Bridgwater on April 7, 2022 (POOL/Finnbarr Webster)

The delay is attributed by EDF to the account of the pandemic: “people, resources and the supply chain have been put to the test and their efficiency has been limited. In addition, the volume of studies and work of civil engineering, and the cost of these works, and in particular of maritime works, have increased”.

The project has been controversial from the outset and contested by French unions for its cost.

“If the (British) government had invested as much in offshore wind as in Hinkley C, we would have had three times as much energy in a fraction of the time,” the environmental NGO Greenpeace criticized on Friday.

– Accumulated setbacks –

The EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) is a nuclear reactor model that is more powerful and designed to be safer than previous generations. Three are complete, in Finland and China, and three are under construction, one in France and two at Hinkley Point.

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Map of the world locating the different EPRs in service or under construction (AFP / )

Map of the world locating the different EPRs in service or under construction (AFP / )

But the Finnish reactor (Olkiluoto-3) started in March 12 years late, and of the two Chinese EPRs commissioned in 2018 and 2019, one has been shut down since July 2021 for technical problems.

As for the French reactor, in Flamanville, the cumulative delays reach 11 years for a fuel loading now planned for the 2nd quarter of 2023, and a cost rising to 12.7 billion euros, four times more than announced in 2006.

EDF has accumulated bad news since the beginning of the year. The group had to be recapitalized in April, and its profit will plunge this year in large part because the French state has asked it to sell more electricity at low prices – a file on which the CEO openly opposes the government.

The group must also solve a pipe corrosion problem which forced it to shut down 12 of its 56 French reactors. In total, more than half of the reactors in France are now shut down for maintenance.

Hinkley Point C is the only nuclear power station being built in the UK. EDF is the contracting authority and its Chinese partner CGN owns a third of the project.

It adjoins the Hinkley Point B nuclear power station, commissioned in 1976 and which EDF has planned to shut down by July 2022 – even if London plans to extend it, according to the daily The Guardian, so as not to reduce its energy production at a time of climate emergency and war in Ukraine.

The ambition across the Channel is to maintain the nuclear share of the energy mix at 20% in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 – while there are currently 15 reactors in the United Kingdom on 8 sites. London wants to produce 95% low-carbon electricity by 2030.

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The construction site of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant on April 21, 2022 in Bridgwater, UK (AFP / Justin TALLIS)

The construction site of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant on April 21, 2022 in Bridgwater, UK (AFP / Justin TALLIS)

In France, EPR technology remains at the heart of the energy strategy. President Emmanuel Macron has announced his intention to relaunch a nuclear program with six new generation EPR2 reactors, praising in particular the climate advantage of this energy.

The first commissioning is not expected before 2035 or 2037. But the financial stakes are immediate and considerable, with an estimated cost of more than 50 billion euros for six reactors.

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