Sunday, April 3, 2016

Redesign and Delay Urged for Hinkley Point C Nuclear Plant

Subtitle:  Engineers See Trouble Ahead for Hinkley Point

The proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in UK faces yet more trouble.  Now, per a 29 March, 2016 article in the Financial Times, a group of senior engineers call for a 2 year delay, and a massive redesign of the reactor (presumably to make it smaller and safer).  see link  

A 2 year delay, though, puts the start up of the first reactor in 2027, which is 2 years after the government mandates the last coal-fired power plant be shut down.   It is unclear how the UK grid will obtain power for the 2 years after shutting down the last coal plant.  

The financial arrangements are also is question, with the Chinese co-owner wanting the French EDF co-owner to take on a larger share of any cost over-runs.   

The sad saga of new nuclear power plants just gets better and better.  There are years-long delays and massive cost over-runs with the same reactor design (1600 MW EPR) in Finland and France (Olkiluoto and Flamanville, respectively), questionable steel quality in the reactor vessels, and now a hurry-up-and-build-it attitude in the UK for Hinkley Point C.  

Roger E. Sowell, Esq.
Marina del Rey, California
copyrignt © 2016 by Roger Sowell, all rights reserved




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