UK agrees deal with EU on new Hinkley Point nuclear power plant

By Alex Barker in Brussels - Financial Times

Britain has agreed terms with Brussels to secure approval for billions of pounds of public funding for Hinkley Point, the country’s first new nuclear power plant in a generation. 

While the conditions are not yet public, Europe’s competition chief is satisfied the revised deal meets EU rules on state support and will propose the project is approved before the end of this European Commission’s mandate in November.

The breakthrough is a big boost for the UK government’s contract with French utility EDF, which will provide a template for the next wave of state-backed nuclear plants across Europe. 

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Calvert Cliffs nuclear power project facing 60-day deadline

Once promoted as the vanguard of a "nuclear renaissance," a proposed new reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland now faces a major new roadblock, with federal regulators threatening to shelve the troubled $9.6 billion project unless the French-controlled developer comes up with a U.S. partner in the next two months.

The ruling Thursday by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board was not unexpected, as the board's parent Nuclear Regulatory Commission had warned Unistar Nuclear Energy more than a year ago that it could not get a license for the Maryland reactor without a U.S. partner. Federal law prohibits foreign ownership or control of a U.S. nuclear plant, and Unistar is owned by the French energy group EDF.

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UK may give Hinkley Point nuclear OK by year-end

Aug 14 (Reuters) - Britain's nuclear regulator said it may resolve all its issues regarding plans for a new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point C by the end of the year.

The Office of Nuclear Regulation said on Tuesday that two Generic Design Assessment (GDA) issues had been closed. The regulator had raised them earlier this year with French energy companies EDF and Areva with regards to the design of a third-generation nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point Somerset, England.

The issues included concerns about monitoring of irradiation damage to material and evidence that concrete used at the reactor provided adequate shielding to ensure that workers and the public would be protected from radiation.

The regulator said work was ongoing with EDF, Areva and Centrica's joint venture company, NNB Generation Company, on improvements that would increase confidence it would be able to safely operate the new plant.

"If EDF and AREVA sustain these improvements for the significant number of submissions that are still to be delivered, and if they remain responsive to any questions that we raise, then we believe that the programmes that are set out in the revised resolution plans can be achieved," the Office of Nuclear Regulation said.

"In that case, and if we are satisfied by the safety, security and environmental arguments that they put forward, we might be able to close all of the remaining GDA Issues by the end of the year," it added.

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UK's Dungeness B21 nuclear unit returns to grid

EDF Energy can confirm that Unit 21 at Dungeness B power station has returned to service. The Unit was resynchronised to the national grid at 17:46 hours (BST) of August 7 after a short outage. The Unit came off-line at 01.30 hours on Saturday morning after an automatic, unplanned shutdown," a spokeswoman said.

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EDF Starts Penly-2 Nuclear Reactor

Electricite de France SA started its Penly-2 nuclear power plant yesterday after an unplanned halt, according to data on the website of grid operator Reseau de Transport d’Electricite.

EDF plans to start its Cruas-1 and Chooz B-2 nuclear power plants on Aug. 13, RTE data show. The company’s 1,300-megawatt Cattenom-4 unit was scheduled to start on Aug. 5 after an unplanned halt on May 29. The reactor was not generating at 12 p.m. Paris time, RTE data show.

EDF, the world’s biggest nuclear power plant operator, has 39 reactors online, representing 67 percent of available nuclear capacity, RTE data show. EDF’s 58 atomic plants generate about 78 percent of the country’s power.

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EDF Halts Blayais-2 Nuclear Plant; Current French Halts

Electricite de France SA halted its 910-megawatt Blayais-2 nuclear power plant today, according to the nation’s grid operator, Reseau de Transport d’Electricite.

EDF delayed the start of its 1,330-megawatt Paluel-3 unit by two days to Aug. 7 following maintenance, RTE data show.

EDF, the world’s biggest nuclear power plant operator, has 40 reactors online, representing 68 percent of available nuclear capacity, RTE data show. EDF’s 58 atomic plants generate about 78 percent of the country’s power.

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UK - Nuclear more popular than gas

With crunch decisions imminent on the UK's energy and climate change future, a new poll suggests government policy is out of step with public opinion.

Decision time is fast approaching for the UK's big energy and climate change choices, from how the government can keep companies interested in building new nuclear power stations to how quickly subsidies for new renewable technologies should taper down. So it's good to get a reminder of what the British people actually want, courtesy of a YouGov opinion poll, paid for by EDF.

EDF, of course, is the nuclear giant 83% owned by the French state and just about the only serious nuclear power player left in the UK. But most of the questions asked were straight, although there were no questions on cost or energy efficiency. What the polling shows is that while nuclear power has survived a small dip in popularity following the Fukushima disaster, it remains short of an absolute majority. Wind power, in contrast, does.

Those polled were asked "how favourable or unfavourable are your overall opinions or impressions of the following energy sources for producing electricity currently?" In June 2012, 40% were very or mainly favourable about nuclear power, compared to 36% shortly after Fukushima and 43% in 2008. Those expressing very or mainly unfavourable opinions on nuclear made up 27% of the poll in June, down from 34% after the Japanese catastrophe, and almost the same as the 28% in 2008. These results echo previous polls that showed the "Fukushima effect" was far more toxic in boardrooms - with companies such as RWE, E.on and Siemens pulling out of nuclear - than in people's living rooms.

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New U.K. Nuclear Power Plants Could Boost Economy

The construction of a new fleet of nuclear power plants in the U.K. could boost the economy by five billion pounds a year, said a report published Tuesday.

Investment in new nuclear plants could also create more than 32,000 additional jobs a year while giving a significant boost to annual exports, said the report from the Institute for Public Policy Research.

The government is supporting new nuclear power plants in efforts to secure electricity supplies as old power plants close over the next decade while also meeting climate change targets with low-carbon energy.

The report was commissioned by EDF Energy, the U.K. subsidiary of Electricite de France SA (EDF.FR), which plans to build 6.4 gigawatts of new nuclear power in the U.K., or enough to power 10 million homes.
Spanish utility Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC) and France's GDF Suez SA (GSZ.FR) also have nuclear ambitions for the U.K.

"Investment in nuclear energy will have benefits in contributing to both economic growth and job creation and has the potential to give Britain a greater share in the export market," the report said.

Particularly at the local level, investment in nuclear energy can boost jobs. Delivery of up to 18 gigawatts of new nuclear energy could generate an average 11,250 direct jobs and the same number of indirect jobs per year. It is possible that between 5,000 and 10,000 induced jobs per year could also be generated with the necessary investment in place, the report said.

Export activity from the energy sector could more than double, from around GBP700 million annually now to between GBP1.2 billion to GBP1.7 billion by 2030 at today's prices, the report added.

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UK nuclear plans 'need saving by David Cameron and Francois Hollande'

The prime minister must step in urgently to rescue the UK's nuclear power programme, or risk it failing, a senior Tory has warned after French nuclear company EDF gave a downbeat report on the prospects for a new fleet of reactors in the UK.

Chairman of the influential energy and climate change committee and former Tory cabinet minister Tim Yeo said that Cameron must speak to his French counterpart, Francois Hollande, in order to decide what conditions are necessary for the state-owned French utility to fulfil its planned investment.

"This is something that can only be done by the heads of government of Britain and France," he told the Guardian. "There may need to be special arrangements for nuclear [separate from the regulation and subsidy of other forms of power]. Given the size of this investment – billions and billions, with a return on investment coming well into the 2020s – this has to involve the heads of government."

Yeo was speaking after the committee's MPs questioned EDF Energy chief executive Vincent de Rivaz and several other energy company senior directors. De Rivaz was "very downbeat" on the prospects for new nuclear power stations, said Yeo.

"It is a worry for the government that EDF is so downbeat. They are the only horse left in this race and if they falter it might mean the end of the whole [nuclear] programme. The government has got to pay a lot of attention to what EDF is saying," he said.

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China: Vessel installation at Taishan nuclear power plant

The construction of the EPR reactor at Taishan in China, coordinated by EDF, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Company (CGNPC) and AREVA, has passed a key stage in its development with the lowering of the vessel into the Unit 1 reactor building, after which it was installed in its final location in the reactor pit.
The positioning of this steel component - weighing more than 420 tons, with a diameter of 5.3 meters and 10.6 meters high - marks the culmination of numerous civil engineering and assembly works undertaken since the metal dome was placed on top of the reactor building at the end of October 2011. This important stage was coordinated by the project manager, Taishan Nuclear Power Joint Venture Company (TNPJVC: a joint venture owned at 70% by CGNPC and at 30 % by EDF), with technical support provided by local AREVA teams.
This operation marks the start of works for the installation of the nuclear steam supply system (apart from the vessel, the 4 steam generators, pressurizer, the 4 primary motorized pump units and pipework), to be undertaken in parallel with the installation of the equipment and auxiliary systems.
David Emond, Taishan Project Manager at AREVA, stated: "The installation of the vessel for the first EPR reactor at Taishan power plant under the best conditions initiates an important new phase in the development of the site. With the success of this key operation, we have taken a further step towards the commissioning of the most powerful nuclear reactor in China."
Roger Seban, Deputy Chief Executive of TNPJVC, assigned by EDF commented: "Now that the vessel has been put in place, we have to move on to the work of installing all of the power station equipment, whilst at all times observing the quality and safety requirements. The Franco-Chinese teams at Taishan are mobilized and ready to achieve this objective."
The EPR™ reactor has an electrical production capacity of more than 1,650 MWe, which places it among the most powerful reactors in the world. A direct descendant of previous models manufactured by AREVA, the EPR™ pressurized water reactor is based on tried-and-tested technologies and principles. It is classified as a generation III+ reactor due to the level of safety obtained and the economic savings that it achieves in relation to the earlier models.