I have blogged recently about problems with the U.K. Hinkley Point C project to build two nuclear reactors. The French utility EDF is involved and the new reactors will be European Pressurized Reactors constructed by the French company, AREVA. There are questions about the integrity of the reactor design. Chinese companies have offered to invest but they want to have permission to build, own and operate a power reactor in Bradwell, England based on their Chinese design. This has upset unions in England. A plan to guarantee a price for the electricity has raised challenges from other European Union countries over subsidizing nuclear projects.
Austria is preparing to lodge a formal complaint in the European Court of Justice next week against the decision of the European Commission to allow the U.K. to proceed with the Hinkley Point C project. Austria is backed by Luxembourg, some cities and some private companies. Austria has decided that it will no longer accept nuclear power as a source for electricity because of its cost and environmental threat. Austria had been importing electricity generated by nuclear power plants in Germany and the Czech Republic but concluded in 2013 that it was going to ban all foreign electricity provided by nuclear power.
Austria stated that it was not trying to interfere with another E.U. member's choice of sources for electricity. What they say they object to is the intention of the U.K. to use a "strike price" which would mean that if wholesale prices for electricity in the U.K. fell below a certain level, the government would step in and make up the difference so that the Hinkley Point power plant would not become unprofitable. The use of strike prices had been confined to renewable energy projects such as wind and solar in the past.
A member of the Austria Parliament complains that the nuclear "technology gives reason for security concerns, and cannot be considered environmentally nor socially sustainable, nor is it an economically competitive technology. It is therefore not qualified to support the energy and climate goals the EU has set.” “In the EU treaty, it says state aid should only be granted in exceptional cases, and Hinkley does not provide these exceptional security of supply issues, because the U.K. has other ways of ensuring its security of supply,” he said. “It has cheap alternatives, notably renewables like offshore wind, and also more interconnections. Technically, there is no emergency situation.”
The European Commission approved the Hinkley Point C plan in late 2014 after assurances from the U.K. that the changes they had made to the plan would protect ratepayers if it turned out that the reactor design had problems that would cause cancellation of the project. It is unlikely that the Commission will remove its support for Hinkley Point C plan because of the Austrian challenge but there will be an impact on the project nonetheless. Any changes that are made to the project plan could cause problems with financing and scheduling that could slow progress and upset investors.
U.K. critics of the Hinkley Point C project point out that the price of electricity has fallen to the point where may soon be below the strike price agreed to before the reactors are even built. Some critics call for the U.K. to abandon nuclear power completely because of cost overruns, scheduling delays and design problems with other EPR projects currently under construction.
Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station:
