Source: Power struggle : Nature News & Comment . . . it was announced that China was taking a 33.5% stake in the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant. French power company EDF will own the remaining 66.5%. Supported by billions of pounds of Chinese investment, the plant should provide 3.2 gigawatts of power when it fires up as planned in 2025. . . . The UK government has agreed a price with the investors of at least £89.50 (US$137) in 2012 terms for every megawatt hour of power produced by the plant. This is roughly double the current market cost, but the government claims — with a little poetic licence of its own — that it “is competitive with other large energy sources such as gas and offshore wind”. . . . The article is written with a little bit of skepticism. Regardless, it looks to a curious plan by a conservative government . . . time to break out the calculators and check the numbers. Bob Wilson
I think this is more of a political than an environmental issue. Many including myself don't think that a private for profit nuclear site should be subsidized simply because it is low ghg. That money could be used to subsidize greener energy, but this is the UK, and I don't have a vote. I don't even want a vote on this. Its complicated, and British. The EPR at that site is probably safer than most US nukes. It still will produce a great deal of nuclear waste, and the EU has no real plan to deal with that. I know some are against it for the chinese money. Really no one else has the patient money for this kind of long term investment, that government regulations may shut down early. If you don't want china involved, then it needs even a bigger government subsidy. Here is probably a better article about what is going on. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/business/international/hinkley-point-nuclear-plant.html Hinkley Point new nuclear power plant: the story so far - Telegraph I'm kind of reminded of the movie idiocracy. The british have forgotten how to build power plants, so they get the smart french to build them a nuke. It is late and over budget so the french ask the chinese for help. Electrolytes are what plants crave. Nuclear power is clean and cheap and free from that nasty ghg. oops. Hey british rate payers please pay more for this cheap chinese nuclear power. Don't worry about the nuclear waste the french will figure out what to do with it.
I'm pretty sure it is an "EDF" power plant. One advantage I've read about the French nuclear plants is a standard design versus the one of a kind approach in the USA plants. But this is just something I've read, not really investigated. However, recent articles describing Russian nuclear plants in the Arctic gives the impression of standard, nuclear power modules. Still, I like the Hyman Rickover quotes: Hyman G. Rickover - Wikiquote Sit down before fact with an open mind. Be prepared to give up every preconceived notion. Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you learn nothing. Don't push out figures when facts are going in the opposite direction. Bob Wilson
EDF is the cheif contracting company. EPR is the type of reactor. EDF and and chinese are attemting to install these EPR reactors. The reactor was designed by EPR areva, and siemens. Its probably safer because it is a better design. You can standardize crap, and its still crap. Standard design means regulation can be streamlined and projects can be built on budget and on-time, but not yet for the EPR. Still Steven chu thought we should wait and develop smaller nukes to be safer. Others want reactors that make less waste. Etc. Its a controversy whether the new design is safe enough, and even if they are safe whether the waste is safe. One thing for sure is edf is over budget and behind schedule on these reactor builds, that's why they reached out to the chinease. The reactor was supposed to go live in 2017, and now it is after 2023.
