UK Nuke Cost Rises 10%, EDF Says
French energy supplier EDF has estimated that the cost of completing the 3,200 megawatt (energy) Hinkley Point C nuclear plant will be nearly 10% more than expected.
The company, which is the project's main backer, said the total cost of the power station was likely to rise by £1.5bn ($1.94 billion) to £19.6bn ($25.39 billion).
Hinkley Point C would be the UK's first new nuclear plant for decades, but has been beset with budget problems.
An EDF review found the project also could be delayed by up to 15 months.
The firm said that would result in an extra £700m in costs, but that it hoped to avoid delays and finish the first nuclear reactor by the end of 2025.
Hinkley Point C nuclear power station is a project to construct a 3,200 MWe nuclear power station with two EPR (pressurized water) reactors in Somerset, England.
EDF plans to use two of Areva's EPR design, with a design net power output each of 1,600 MWe (1,630 MWe gross). Cour commercial EPR units currently are being built: one at Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in Finland, one at Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant in France, and Taishan 1 & 2, in China.
In July 2016 the EDF board approved the Hinkley Point project, and in September 2016 the UK government approved the project with some safeguards for the investment. Construction costs will be paid for by EDF and state-owned CGN of China.
EDF said the extra costs partly resulted from adapting the project's design to meet the demands of UK regulators.
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