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As an advocate for nuclear power, it amazed me that the UK gave EDF the go-ahead for Hinkley C given the Finnish experience (11 billion euros, about 3x the orig

by zh3 5y ago

As an advocate for nuclear power, it amazed me that the UK gave EDF the go-ahead for Hinkley C given the Finnish experience (11 billion euros, about 3x the original budget and getting on for 10 years late) with the same reactor design. At least Olkiluto is sort-of producing power now. Oh, and EDF in the UK really are the pits. Why anyone pays over the odds to use them is beyond me (it may be different for industrial users, but for consumers it's hard to imagine there's a worse choice). At least they won't go bust [0] being goverment backed. [0] https://www.reuters.com/article/edf-restructuring-eu-idUSL1N2KA0ZP https://www.reuters.com/article/edf-restructuring-eu-idUSL1N...

anttisalmela 5y ago
OL3 is not yet producing power, apparently turbines didn't like spending a decade waiting for use and need some maintenance. Current estimation is that reactor will be started in January 2022 and regular electricity production will start in March.
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makomk 5y ago
The UK didn't put all their nuclear eggs in the EDF basket, it's just that the other companies offering to build new nuclear plants were even more of a disaster than EDF. At least they managed to actually complete a reactor build recently; if I remember rightly the other candidates went bankrupt.
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7952 5y ago
It is regrettable that industry could not do better. But I can see some sense from the government perspective. Ultimately you get a big investment in British industry. And eventually a very reliable baseload generator. And people will blame the electricity companies for high prices not the government. And ideally the next build is at a lower strike price. Offshore wind was also very expensive in the early days but now has much lower strike prices. Ultimately the biggest hurdle to development is commercial risk and electricy prices need to match with that risk. Better to pay a lot than pretend that nuclear is super cheap. The UK energy sector is never going to be cheap! But it maybe can get less risky and cheaper.

by zh3 5y ago

anttisalmela 5y ago

OL3 is not yet producing power, apparently turbines didn't like spending a decade waiting for use and need some maintenance. Current estimation is that reactor will be started in January 2022 and regular electricity production will start in March.

deleted 5y ago
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makomk 5y ago

The UK didn't put all their nuclear eggs in the EDF basket, it's just that the other companies offering to build new nuclear plants were even more of a disaster than EDF. At least they managed to actually complete a reactor build recently; if I remember rightly the other candidates went bankrupt.

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7952 5y ago

It is regrettable that industry could not do better. But I can see some sense from the government perspective. Ultimately you get a big investment in British industry. And eventually a very reliable baseload generator. And people will blame the electricity companies for high prices not the government. And ideally the next build is at a lower strike price. Offshore wind was also very expensive in the early days but now has much lower strike prices. Ultimately the biggest hurdle to development is commercial risk and electricy prices need to match with that risk. Better to pay a lot than pretend that nuclear is super cheap. The UK energy sector is never going to be cheap! But it maybe can get less risky and cheaper.