Further delays and cost overruns have hit the UK project to build the 3,260MW Hinkley Point C nuclear power station project in Sommerset. The project’s owner, French state-controlled Electricité de France, now says first generation of electricity will start at least four years later than originally planned and cost around 70% more.
When the UK government approved the project in September 2016, EdF predicted completion in 2025 at a cost of $23 billion. Then, in May 2022, the company pushed completion to June 2027 and revised the cost up to about $32 billion at 2015 prices. In its last update on Jan. 23, the company forecast the completion between 2029 and 2031 with costs rising to $39-43 billion.
“Restarting Britain’s nuclear industry has been difficult,” HPC chief executive Stuart Crooks said in a company update. “We had to train a new workforce, teach suppliers how to build nuclear and … change our design to meet British regulation.”
Around 7,000 design changes have required 35% more steel and 25% more concrete. Like other infrastructure projects, HPC is taking longer than expected, Crooks added.
Meanwhile, last month, contractors placed a 270-ton steel dome on the first reactor building. The team used what was said to be the largest crane in the world, to place the 154-foot-diameter, 46-foot-tall dome on the 144-foot-tall building. The elevator “allows us to continue with the installation of equipment, pipes and cables, including the first reactor that is on site and ready to be installed. [in 2024],” noted EdF’s nuclear island area manager, Simon Parsons, at the time.
