Last week the world’s first European Pressurised Water Reactor (“EPR”) came online at Taishan in China, 18 years after the first planned EPR at Olkiluoto in Finland made its first licence application. Construction on the third generation nuclear plant at Taishan began in 2009 and was initially expected to open in 2013, however in common…
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Nuclear power is back in the news in the UK, with reports that the Government is provide support to the new nuclear plant being developed at Wylfa Newydd in Angelsey, Wales by Horizon Nuclear Power, a subsidiary of Hitachi. According to Richard Harrington, the Under Secretary of State for Business and Industry, several funding options…
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The saga of the UK’s attempts to re-invigorate its nuclear industry continues, with further criticism of Hinkley Point C, this time by the Public Accounts Committee, speculation that an investor has finally been found for the Moorside project, and the expectation of a decision from the Government on the design of the new reactor proposed…
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Last month, Dutch research institute, NRG, re-ignited interest in thorium nuclear projects by announcing a new investigation into the use of thorium reactors in collaboration with the EU. The Salt Irradiation Experiment (“Salient”), based at the High Flux Reactor in Petten, will begin with experiments to melt thorium fuel and then bombard it with neutrons to…
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Since the announcement in on 29 March that as well as exiting the EU, the UK would also be withdrawing from Euratom, the European Atomic Energy Community, there has been much consternation, with fears ranging from the UK potentially being barred from importing nuclear material, to Brexit threatening cancer treatments. So what is the story…
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This week has seen two significant prices of news relating to the new nuclear reactor being constructed at Hinkley Point in Somerset. Firstly, the French nuclear regulator, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (“ASN”), has made a preliminary decision relating to the pressure vessel at Flamanville, the proto-type European Pressurised Water Reactor for the HPC build,…
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The past couple of weeks have seen a stream of news on the topic of nuclear power. In this post I will outline the key developments and what they mean for the GB power market. Hinkley Point construction moves to its next phase, but Flamanville outcome still unclear This week has seen the first…
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When the UK government gave the final approval for Hinkley Point C in September this year, people could have been forgiven for thinking that a new generation of nuclear reactors was a done deal for the UK. The decision having been made, everyone now seems content to sit and wait for EDF to complete construction…
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In a recent post I outlined some of the challenges facing Hinckley Point C – the flagship next generation nuclear project in the UK. Various commentators have suggested that new nuclear in the UK has missed the boat since the deployment of renewables combined with the problems with the new EPR technology means that there…
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