Kick Nuclear March 2023

FOUR UK CIVIL NUCLEAR REACTORS 

GIVEN A LIFE EXTENSION

On the 9th February, Electricité de France (EDF) announced that it was extending the lives of two of its remaining five AGR (“Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactors”) stations. The two are Heysham 1 and Hartlepool, with two reactors each..

The two power stations both started operating in 1983, with a final closure date given as 2014. This closure date has already been extended twice, to March 2024. EDF’s February announcement extended this again, to “early 2026”.

EDF said the move will support energy security, reduce demand for imported gas, and reduce carbon emissions. (But this last only compared to increasing reliance on fossil fuels rather than on renewable energy)

Secretary of State Grant Shapps, of course, welcomed the news, saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine demonstrated the “vital importance” of bolstering energy security.

All this means that all UK’s operating civil nuclear power reactors bar one, Sizewell B, are due to close down by 2028. The other remaining two-reactor eAGR stations at Heysham 2 and Torness are now due to shut down that year – they had previously had a shut-down date of 2030.

Consequently, unless two-reactor Hinkley Point C, the only nuclear power station currently in construction in the UK, goes into operation by 2028 (This is dubious – 2033 has been mooted as a more realistic date) there will be just one UK reactor operating after 2028, Sizewell B, which has a current closure date of 2035, though this may be extended to 2055.

SIZEWELL C – JUMPING THE GUN

As for Sizewell C, the only UK nuclear power station scheduled to begin construction (in June 2027), the final investment decision (FID) which will determine whether it will be constructed and, if so, when construction will start, has still not been made. Also, the project doesn’t yet have the required site licence from the Office for Nuclear Regulation, nor three g environmental permits required from the Environment Agency. Furthermore, the project’s Development Consent Order approval is subject to TASC’s judicial review proceedings scheduled to take place in the High Court on 22nd and 23rd March. So scheduling a start of construction date of June 2027 is clearly premature.

However, Together Against Sizewell B (TASC) reported on 14th March that EDF has begun to clear over 40 acres of ground for a car-park for Sizewell. B. Not only this, but, as TASC reports, the area being cleared is an area of wet woodland, a legally-protected “Biodiversity Action Plan” habitat. The clearing will also involve the felling of ancient trees. This action gives a lie to a statement by EDF on 18th January that “...advance works [for Sizewell C] are reversible in the unlikely event that Sizewell C will not proceed to a Final Investment Decision and full construction.” As TASc’s chair contended, “...it is not possible to reverse such losses…” “So why the hurry? Perhaps to create facts on the ground in an attempt to try to influence the FID?

WHY CHOOSE EPR? 

It’s a mystery why EDF, and indeed the government, are intending to plough ahead with the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) design, since the few that have been built or are being built have proved such technical and commercial failures.

Only two such reactors have so far gone into full operation, Taishan 1 and Taishan 2 in China. Both took much longer to build and cost much more to do so than originally estimated, because of construction faults. The building of the two reactors began in November 2009 and April 2010 respectively, with an estimated construction period of under four years, but in the end they were not connected to the grid until December 2018 and September 2019. The cost of building them seems to have increased from an original predicted cost of $7.5 billion to about $12.5 billion.

In operation there have been serious problems with Taishan 1, including breakages in fuel rods which led to the reactor being shut down for over a year, from July 2021 to August 2022.

The first two EPR reactors in the world were planned to start building in Finland in 2005, as Okiluoto 3 and 4. However, though construction of Okiluoto 3 began that year, Okiluoto 4 seems to fallen by the wayside and in June 2015 the owner, TVO, was reported to have decided not to apply for a construction permit for the Olkiluoto 4 unit at present because of delays with unit 3. And the delays have been colossal due to “planning, supervision and workmanship” and though it was originally planned to be connected to the grid in 2010, it did not achieve this until February 2022 and then only for a period of testing. This went badly, the unit being closed down for three months from May 2022 for repair work and in October cracking damage was discovered, so that the full operation of the plant was delayed until March 2023.

And between 2005 the projected cost of the project jumped from $7.5 billion to some $12.5 billion.

The only EPR reactor being built in France, is Flamanville 3 on the Channel coast. This began building in 2007, with commercial operation scheduled for 2012. As of March 2023 it was still not in operation, with EDF announcing a delay of at least six months from December 2022. Meanwhile the projected cost of the project has rocketed from $3.3 billion to $19.1 billion by 2020. This extraordinary and costly delay reflects problems with the original design, faulty construction, of particular concern, cracking of the reactor’s pressure vessel, poor workmanship. EDF cites “the pandemic” as a cause..

Hinkley Point C, mentioned above, in construction in the UK since September 2017, was originally projected to cost £18 billion and scheduled to begin operating by the end of 2025. In February this year EDF announced that cost would rise to £32.7 billion and gave a new completion date of September 2008. The reasons for the very costly 11-years delay of the project seem to be much the same as for that of Flamanville 3, with the originally supplied reactor pressure vessel being found faulty. Again EDF blames the pandemic.

NEW EPRS IN FRANCE AND INDIA AS WELL?

In spite of this disastrous history, the UK is not the only country planning to build new EPR reactors.

In February 2022, President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would build six new EPR 2 reactors, the first to be commissioned by 2035, and with an option for eight more. (EPR describes EPR2 as “a cheaper-to-build version of its EPR reactor technology”)

In February 2009, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) signed a memorandum of understanding with Areva to build two EPR reactors at Jaitapur in India and in April 2021, EDF submitted to NPCIL an offer to build six EPR reactors at the Jaiapur site.

In June 2021 the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade invited EDF, along with other companies, to submit proposals for the design of a new reactor at an existing nuclear power station and EPR has submitted the EPR design,

The EPR design is one of four potential nuclear reactors Kazakhstan is considering for its second nuclear power plant.

None of these have however started construction, and that’s it it seems is the lot of current possibles,

Meanwhile plans, or proposals, to build EPR stations in the US, Canada, Italy, the UAE and others in Finland have all been canelled.

ZAPORIZHZHIA INSPECTION

It was announced on 25th March that the head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Authority is tibvisit the nuclear power station to assess the serious security situation there The station in Ukraine, with six reactors, is Europe’s largest nuclear power station. It is currently occupied by Russian forces near the front with Ukranian forces and has come under repeated shelling.