Further delays and cost overruns have hit the UK project to build the 3,260MW Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant project in Sommerset, England. French state-controlled project owner 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 forecast completion in 2025 at a cost of $23 billion. In its last update on Jan. 23, the company forecast completion between 2029 and 2031 with costs rising from $39 billion to $43 billion, up from a revised forecast of mid-2022 that had already advanced the completion to June 2027 and revised the cost down to about $32. billion at 2015 prices.
“Restarting Britain’s nuclear industry has been difficult,” project managing director 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, Hinkley Point C is taking longer than expected, Crooks added.
Site contractors placed a 270-ton steel dome on the first reactor building last month. The team used what was said to be the world’s largest crane 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 Simon Parsons, EDF’s nuclear island area manager.
