Nuclear Power
EDF's nuclear worries continue In an update this week the came as a shock to exactly nobody, EDF announced a further cost over-run and delay at it's new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point C. When the project was first mooted in 2007, EDF claimed [...]
As Europe focuses on a gas market crisis that began with a covid-related supply and demand imbalance that has now been significantly magnified by the consequences of the illegal war in Ukraine, a smaller crisis in the French electricity market has attracted much less [...]
Yesterday EDF announced a further delay to the schedule for its troubled flagship European Pressurised Water Reactor (“EPR”) at Flamanville: fuelling is now expected to start at the end of Q2 next year, delayed from late 2022. The project costs are also forecast to [...]
EDF announced this week that it is bringing forward the closure dates of two of its nuclear power stations - Heysham 2 in Lancashire, and Tornesss in East Lothian, are now expected to close in 31 March 2028 instead of 2030. Accelerating the closure [...]
There has been a slew of energy market news in the past couple of days, but none of it is good. Yesterday, Zog Energy became the 29th energy supplier to fail this year. The company had 11,700 domestic customers and has entered the Supplier [...]
Against the backdrop of the current energy crisis comes the news that the Government is looking at new proposals for a nuclear reactor at Wylfa Newydd. The original proposal was for an Advanced Boiling Water Reactor ("ABWR"), but after developer Hitachi failed to agree [...]
Regular readers will know that I am no fan of EDF’s third generation nuclear technology being deployed at Hinkley Point C – the European Pressurised Water Reactor (“EPR”). The company has been trying and failing to complete its flagship reactors at Flamanville and Olkiluoto [...]
Low nuclear availability added to the capacity issues in the GB market over the past winter, and as the fleet ages and new nuclear is further delayed, these problems are set to become more acute. Since the first commercial nuclear power plant anywhere in [...]
Despite the disruptions to the energy sector as a result of the pandemic, the Government remains committed to its 2050 net zero carbon target. The problem, as I have noted before, is that there are currently no technological solutions to achieve this – carbon capture [...]
The troubled European Pressurised Water reactor technology hit new problems this week with EDF announcing further cost overruns at its next generation nuclear project at Hinkley Point C. “Challenging ground conditions” have meant the cost of the project has risen by a further £2.9 [...]