Despite rumors to the contrary, the British government insists it is standing behind its controversial two-unit, 3,200-MW Sizewell C planned nuclear power project. The BBC on Friday (Nov. 4) reported that despite government denials, “A government official had told the BBC that every major project was under review ‘including Sizewell C’ as ministers try to cut spending.”
The same day, The Guardian quoted new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson, “Our position on Sizewell C has not changed. We hope to get a deal over the line as soon as possible. There are negotiations ongoing. I can’t get into detail of those, but negotiations have been constructive.”
Those negotiations, The Guardian indicated, likely involve a pledge by Sunak’s short-lived predecessor Liz Truss, who promised to eventually connect northern towns and cities might be scaled back. Grant Shapps, the government’s business secretary, told the BBC, “There wasn’t really much point in going and blasting new tunnels through the Pennines … It’s not true to say we’re not delivering on what we said we would do on levelling up the north.”
The two new pressurized water reactors would sit next to the existing 1,340-MW Sizewell B reactor, a Westinghouse PWR that went into service in 1995. Sizewell A, with two of the uniquely British Magnox reactors, is being decommissioned.
Most estimates have the cost of Sizewell C at around $34 billion at current exchange rates. In addition to the cost, controversy has centered on the planned use of the French-German EPR reactors. Projects in England, Finland, and France using the new EPR reactors have had serious construction problems, leading to vastly increased costs and schedules.
One reactor, Finland’s 1.600-ME Olkiluoto 3, is schedule to start commercial operation next month, after constructed started in August 2005. In France, the 1,600-MW Flamanville unit started construction in December 2007 and it currently scheduled to start up in 2023. The current cost estimate is $12.7.
The UK has a two-unit, 3,200-MW EPR project, Hinkley Point C, under construction in Somerset. Originally planned for two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, the planned project switched to the EPR technology in 2009 when Électricité de France bought British Energy. EDF Energy and China General Nuclear Power Group (CGNP) are financing the project. Construction began in 2017, with an estimated startup in 2027 at a cost of $29 billion.
A two-unit EPR station, Taishan 1 and 2, is operating in China. That project suffered from some delays, but nothing to match what occurred in Finland and France.
EDF and CGNP are also financing and will own Sizewell C, which has also been a source of controversy.