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Hinkley Point Delayed - Again

The Don

Penultimate Amazing
The Don
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I can see this from my house (more or less). It looks like another delay to this major infrastructure project:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36921785

The government then said it was "only right" to review the project and would make a decision by the autumn.

Contracts were supposed to have been signed on Friday.
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In general I'm in favour of nuclear power forming a significant part of our electricity generation inventory. I'm torn about this because I think that, for the strategic good of the coutnry, the finance and engineering expertise should have been home-grown. Instead the technology is French and a large amount of the finance is from China.

As a result, I'm not happy with the index-linked £95/mwh deal that the government agreed to allow funding to go ahead. Like with the water industry, the customers will be over-charged to provide very generous returns to shareholders. In this case it's not even UK pension funds and the like which will benefit. :mad:

The short notice U-turn OTOH smacks of unprofessionalism and panic.
 
The Don said:
I'm torn about this because I think that, for the strategic good of the country, the finance and engineering expertise should have been home-grown. Instead the technology is French and a large amount of the finance is from China.

As a result, I'm not happy with the index-linked £95/mwh deal that the government agreed to allow funding to go ahead. Like with the water industry, the customers will be over-charged to provide very generous returns to shareholders. In this case it's not even UK pension funds and the like which will benefit. :mad:

The short notice U-turn OTOH smacks of unprofessionalism and panic.
Click to expand...
As a pro nuke power person myself, it is disappointing to see the collateral issues rise up to once again frustrate a plan to bring energy via that means. Hope your political leadership can sort it out. The "where does the money go" question seems to have been asked a bit late. :confused:
 
The Don said:
In general I'm in favour of nuclear power forming a significant part of our electricity generation inventory. I'm torn about this because I think that, for the strategic good of the coutnry, the finance and engineering expertise should have been home-grown. Instead the technology is French and a large amount of the finance is from China.

As a result, I'm not happy with the index-linked £95/mwh deal that the government agreed to allow funding to go ahead. Like with the water industry, the customers will be over-charged to provide very generous returns to shareholders. In this case it's not even UK pension funds and the like which will benefit. :mad:
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Agree with every word.
 
The Don said:
I can see this from my house (more or less). It looks like another delay to this major infrastructure project:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36921785



In general I'm in favour of nuclear power forming a significant part of our electricity generation inventory. I'm torn about this because I think that, for the strategic good of the coutnry, the finance and engineering expertise should have been home-grown. Instead the technology is French and a large amount of the finance is from China.

As a result, I'm not happy with the index-linked £95/mwh deal that the government agreed to allow funding to go ahead. Like with the water industry, the customers will be over-charged to provide very generous returns to shareholders. In this case it's not even UK pension funds and the like which will benefit. :mad:

The short notice U-turn OTOH smacks of unprofessionalism and panic.
Click to expand...

Yuck, that's almost 5 times more expensive than nuclear in the USA...
 
Newtons Bit said:
Yuck, that's almost 5 times more expensive than nuclear in the USA...
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It will be the most expensive nuclear power station in the world to date.(Not sure if the figure includes PFI gouging markup) And of course that's before the almost inevitably budget over runs.

Not to mention the fact that we'll be paying double the British going rate for the power (which is already double the European going rate).
 
Darth Rotor said:
As a pro nuke power person myself, it is disappointing to see the collateral issues rise up to once again frustrate a plan to bring energy via that means. Hope your political leadership can sort it out. The "where does the money go" question seems to have been asked a bit late. :confused:
Click to expand...

The political leadership are part of the problem IMO. Since electricity was privatised 25 years ago, there has been no effective mechanism for centralised planning of capacity. Right now the UK is facing a capacity crisis as older coal-fired plants are closed down and insufficient new capacity is coming on line to replace them.

Renewables are fine up to a point but solar and wind have limitations and cannot provide "baseload". The generators are already being bribed to keep the old plant open and on standby - at great cost to the consumer - and the people delivering this nuclear plant know that, because it will be a key part of UK power generation for the next 50 years, they have the government by the short and curlies - hence the sweet (for them) deal on electricity pricing.

The government always knew where the money was coming from and where it was going but I guess they see an opportunity to prevaricate further.
 
I have nothing against nuclear power.
I do have problems wuth paying the French and Chinese double the going rate fir it though.
 
P.J. Denyer said:
It will be the most expensive nuclear power station in the world to date.........
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Why? Why don't we just build the usual design? What is so special about what is being proposed?

Never mind the most expensive power station in the world, I heard this morning that it will be the most expensive building in the whole world, which is ludicrous.............and I am pro-nuclear.
 
The Don said:
....... they have the government by the short and curlies - hence the sweet (for them) deal on electricity pricing......
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It's can't be that sweet. An EDF board member resigned when the decision was taken, and it was only a small minority on the board who supported the decision to go ahead.
 
Broadly greed with the o/p.

But there are only two European instances of this EPR design, both currently under construction, and both are panning out to be financial disasters.

The Finnish one: started in 2005, scheduled to go online in 2009, still under construction.

The French one: concrete poured in 2007, hoping for power output in 2018 but they'll be lucky.

Both projects are massively over budget and huge white elephants, as Hinkley would also have been. Scrap it.
 
MikeG said:
It's can't be that sweet. An EDF board member resigned when the decision was taken, and it was only a small minority on the board who supported the decision to go ahead.
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Small majority you mean?

It only has to be a majority thought, that's the way it works.
 
MikeG said:
It's can't be that sweet. An EDF board member resigned when the decision was taken, and it was only a small minority on the board who supported the decision to go ahead.
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I think it's a very sweet deal, but it's also a big and very long term investment IIRC the reluctance to proceed had much to do with the effect of that investment on the company's liquidity.
 
MikeG said:
Why? Why don't we just build the usual design? What is so special about what is being proposed?

Never mind the most expensive power station in the world, I heard this morning that it will be the most expensive building in the whole world, which is ludicrous.............and I am pro-nuclear.
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We had the technology 50 years ago to do this. The problem then was every power-station was built in pairs using different reactor designs and we never developed a standard design and hence none were economically viable for mass production, then all investment stopped. The French however developed a design and have stuck with it, and they can throw them up at will, ok safety systems and control systems get enhanced with each generation, but the basic reactor design has remained the same, instead of an endless launch of experimental reactors as we did.
 
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