Imagine that you are a fish swimming in the Bristol Channel. Imagine you are a fish swimming in the Bristol Channel, with your herring, sprat, and brethren. Suddenly, you are sucked up into the cooling system of a nuclear plant, never to be seen ever again.
The threat of marine life to the plant’s new Hinkley Point C, which is under construction in Somerset since 2016, has occupied the minds of regulators as well as designers. EDF, the contractor, devised a “fish-return pipe” that would send the fish back into the pipes. Acoustic alarms were suggested as a way to warn fish of their fate.
EDF had never faced anything like this before when it came to designing the power plant for the animal lovers in Britain. EDF sources say that this is just one of many reasons for the fact that last week it was forced to admit to a delay up to four year and an additional £10 billion in Britain’s largest ever nuclear power station.
This is the result of a project which was initially intended to cook our turkeys before Christmas 2017.
Hinkley C could cost up to £46 billion in today’s currency, compared with the initial estimate of £18. This is a staggering amount for opponents of nuclear energy. It’s comparable to other wasteful projects like HS2.
It makes the argument of nuclear supporters much more difficult: it is a source of power that could help us reach net zero but it’s reputation as being expensive makes it difficult to justify.
China built 37 nuclear reactors over the last decade, but Britain has only been able to build one. How did Hinkley Point C get so far behind schedule, and over budget?
Hinkley Point C is designed and executed by the French electricity company EDF. China General Nuclear Power (CGN), however, retains a 33% stake.
EDF claims that changing specifications by the UK is not only to protect fish, but also part of the issue. The company claimed that Britain’s stricter rules required 7,000 design changes, which resulted in 35 percent more steel and 25% more concrete than initially planned. A requirement for a failsafe analog control system to work with the digital was one of the most complex changes.
According to reports, the strict British rules forced designers to make 7,000 design changes.
Hinkley is powered by two European pressurised-water reactors (also known as EPRs). These plants were built in China and France.
EDF’s critics claim that the Office for Nuclear Regulation, the Environment Agency and others had given it fair notice of the changes they wanted. This should have been incorporated into their plans.
ONR said that its requirements were originally ordered in 2012, and that additional changes were requested in light of lessons learned from the Fukushima disaster in 2011, and other EPR problems. The spokesman stated: “We do not recognize our regulatory requirements to be the primary factor in these increases as they are similar to those in France.
EDF acknowledged that, while generic designs had been completed at the beginning of construction, “execution design”, or the details of the plan, were still being worked on. For example, to accommodate extra safety equipment, the buildings had to be bigger and have more floors. One of the lessons learned from large projects is to spend a lot more time upfront planning the final design. “And Hinkley just wasn’t like that.”
EPR reactors have been plagued with problems everywhere they’ve been built. This has led to delays and power failures. Some industry professionals say that it’s simply too complicated. According to a study conducted by MIT 2022, EPRs require almost twice as much concrete per unit of electricity generated compared to rival reactors.
A former EDF boss said that the reactor would be “almost impossible to build” in 2022. The President Macron who nationalised EDF in 2017 has ordered that the company build six new reactors using the EPR 2 design. The older design is being abandoned everywhere but the UK where the government intends to use it in the next major project in the pipeline — Sizewell C, Suffolk.
Hinkley came into being in 2013 after Britain had not turned on a reactor since Sizewell B was built in 1995. Skills and expertise were waning at that time. EDF faced a difficult task in building a supply network and training workers.
The MPs in 1978 had envisioned that Sizewell A would be the first of a fleet ten power plants ordered each year during the 1980s.
The UK’s gas-fired power plants were built because of cheap, plentiful North Sea Gas. This didn’t happen. According to Adrian Bull of the University of Manchester’s chair in nuclear and social issues, the 1990 abolition of Central Electricity Generating Board and privatization of supply eliminated the central planning which could have led to the construction of more nuclear plants. After 1990, “the economics of nuclear investment by the private sector just didn’t add up,” said Adrian Bull, chairman in nuclear and society at the University of Manchester.
EDF spent £120m on four colleges that teach welding and other essential skills.
Sizewell B was to be the first out of ten nuclear power stations built in the Eighties
Hinkley was funded by the British government agreeing in advance to the price that EDF would sell its electricity. The British taxpayer saved money by using this method, but the French company is responsible for any overruns. The Chinese shareholder will not be able to help, as it has been banned from participating in future British nuclear projects due to political reasons.
Hinkley’s extra costs will put more pressure on EDF, which is already strapped for cash. It is estimated that the company will have to pay €50 billion to upgrade France’s aging reactors and the six new plants. This is in addition to the costs of the electricity price cap set by Macron following the war in Ukraine.
Last week, it was reported that French officials had been in discussions with British officials about contributing to Hinkley’s black hole.
EDF’s defense is that the pandemic has clearly hampered progress on the Somerset Project. Stuart Crooks, MD of Hinkley, said in an update last week to his staff that the majority of the two-year delay is due to Covid-19 and only nine months are lost because of other factors. “That’s certainly not perfect, but it’s a good start for the first British nuclear plant built since 1995,” said Crooks.
At the height of pandemic, the workforce, which was normally 10,000 people, had been reduced to 2,000. The disruption caused to businesses and supply chains were particularly severe. The cladding of the turbine was delayed because some suppliers were already fully booked. Some were producing cladding to repair buildings after Grenfell. This delay in turn delayed the installation of the turbine. The shortage of reinforced bars on the site was so severe that these materials had to be rationed at one time.
Cost-plus contracts are believed to be the cause of some of Hinkley’s overruns. This means that, as with HS2, if contractor costs increase, they can then be passed to the project with an additional fee.
EDF has also had other projects that haven’t gone as smoothly. Another EPR in France at Flamanville is also several years behind schedule and way over budget. The project is due to start generating electricity this summer, 12 years after it was originally scheduled.
This suggests that the problem could be EDF-specific. According to one industry source, the company’s refusal to delegate the project and instead insist on taking the lead itself was a contributing factor. “EDF views themselves as a nuclear technology and utility company, as well as a mega-project delivery company. “I think they got stuck because of that,” they said.
Some countries, such as Japan and Germany, have avoided nuclear power over the past decades. Others are pushing ahead. According to the World Nuclear Association, China has the largest pipeline of nuclear reactors, with 26 reactors currently under construction out of the 61 reactors that are being built globally. Barakah was the first large nuclear plant built by the United Arab Emirates. It began generating electricity in 2021. Despite initial delays, the plant has now switched on three nuclear reactors in quick succession. Turkey, India, and Egypt have also advanced nuclear plans.
Conventional wisdom in the industry holds that building and maintaining reactors becomes easier as they multiply. EDF and Sizewell Development Company argue that Sizewell can benefit from Hinkley’s lessons and that its two EPR-reactors will go more smoothly. EDF has already claimed that the construction of the Hinkley second reactor is 20-30% more efficient than the first. Sizewell stands to gain from the skills and supply chain that Hinkley has developed.
Sizewell C opponents note that the project may face different challenges than Hinkley. For example, the site will need sea defences and anchors to stabilize the site. It will also require a reliable water supply. The reactor will be constructed in close proximity to an existing reactor, which is not the case at Hinkley where the B reactor was shut down. Alison Downes of the Stop Sizewell C Campaign said that “everything is site-specific — you can’t take what’s happening in Hinkley, and put it down in Suffolk.”
Hinkley’s latest delay threatens the Labour Party’s pledge to decarbonise electricity by 2030. With most of Britain’s current fleet of reactors set to be switched off by the year 2020, a possible shortage of low-emissions electricity looms. If EDF fails to meet its revised deadline, saving the fish in the Bristol Channel will look easy.