Hinkley C , the owner of , has blamed Brexit, Covid and inflation for its announcement that it could delay and cost £2.3bn another nuclear power plant.
France’s EDF announced that the plant in Somerset is expected to be completed by 2031, and will cost up to £35bn. EDF said that the price will increase significantly once inflation is factored in, as EDF uses 2015 prices.
The latest setback in a long line of problems represents a significant delay in the original timetable for the project. In 2007, then EDF CEO Vincent de Rivaz stated that turkeys could be cooked with electricity produced by Hinkley’s atomic power plant before Christmas 2017. The project cost estimated £18bn when it was given green light in 2016.
In a memo to employees, Stuart Crooks said, “Like many other large infrastructure projects, civil construction has been slower than expected. We have also faced inflation, shortages of labour and materials, and Brexit disruption.”
Crooks stated: “Running this project longer will cost us more money, and our budget is also affected by the rising costs of civil construction.” The British taxpayers or consumers will not pay any money for the cost increases. They are all covered by the shareholders.
EDF said previously that the first unit of the nuclear site will be and should be completed by June 2027. A 15-month buffer was expected to be used, putting the completion date at September 2028. The second unit would take another year to complete. The cost was estimated at between £25bn-£26bn. This figure was revised to £32.7bn by February 2023.
EDF presented three scenarios. These ranged from becoming operational in 2029 to delays pushing it back to 2031.
The cost to complete Hinkley is between £31bn to £34bn. However, if the completion date is pushed back to 2031, costs will rise to £35bn.
China General Nuclear had stopped funding Hinkley in December. This came after the Chinese state-owned firm CGN lost its stake in Sizewell C, the sister site to Hinkley that was proposed in Suffolk.
Inflation over the past decade could make the cost of the project much higher. The latest financial estimates were based on 2015 accounting figures. Hinkley’s spiraling costs are a source of controversy for French taxpayers who are footing the bill.
Hinkley Point C, and Sizewell C will be the first of a new generation of nuclear power plants.
Great British Nuclear was launched by the government last year to accelerate the development of nuclear projects. Ministers announced plans earlier this month for the “largest nuclear expansion in 70 Years”.
Hinkley Point C’s delay is likely to add to the concerns about project delays, costs and skills in a sector that will be responsible for supplying a quarter the nation’s electricity by 2050.
Crooks wrote, “Dome lifting happened 24 months after we planned when we started in 2016. The global pandemic was responsible for 15 months of that delay. We’ve lost 9 months from the time we began, if we don’t include Covid. “It’s still not perfect but it’s the first British nuclear plant built since 1995. It’s not too bad.”
Crooks stated that the project had “passed the half-way mark” and many risks were now “behind us”.
EDF announced in January that it would delay for at least two-years the shutdown of four UK nuclear reactors and increase its investment in its British Nuclear Fleet.