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'Unconstructable' Hinkley C could end UK's nuclear dream
http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/Blogs/2605273/unconstructable_hinkley_c_could_end_uks_nuclear_dream.html
'Unconstructable' Hinkley C could end UK's nuclear dream
Chris Goodall
30th October 2014
Opponents of nuclear power hold up the planned Hinkley C as an examplar of waste and idiocy that could cost the UK over £30 billion in subsidies. Chris Goodall agrees - and fears that an impending fiasco with the 'unconstructable' and commercially disastrous EPR design may kill off the UK's nuclear aspirations for a generation.
"The EPR is safe, very safe", said Tony Roulstone at a lecture in Oxford last week.
But the complexity of the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) design means it is extraordinarily difficult to build. This type of reactor is, he said, perhaps in an unguarded moment, "unconstructable".
Roulstone, who runs the Master's programme in nuclear engineering in Cambridge, described the proposed EPR nuclear power station at Hinkley Point as similar in concept to "a cathedral within a cathedral" which would stretch the ability of any business to build it.
<snip>
The EPR design is deceased, madam
Roulstone went on to say that Areva, the French company that owns the EPR design, is no longer actively selling power stations of this type.
In those countries still looking to expand nuclear power, such as Saudi Arabia, China and Turkey, Areva is now pushing an alternative reactor. In China, where several EPRs are currently being constructed, the authorities have indicated that they will not use the design for future power plants.
In other words, the Hinkley Point design is already regarded as a failure by those with most knowledge of it. In Finland and in Normandy, where the EPR is already under construction, delays of several years and enormous cost overruns are crippling the projects.
<snip>
'Unconstructable' Hinkley C could end UK's nuclear dream
Chris Goodall
30th October 2014
Opponents of nuclear power hold up the planned Hinkley C as an examplar of waste and idiocy that could cost the UK over £30 billion in subsidies. Chris Goodall agrees - and fears that an impending fiasco with the 'unconstructable' and commercially disastrous EPR design may kill off the UK's nuclear aspirations for a generation.
"The EPR is safe, very safe", said Tony Roulstone at a lecture in Oxford last week.
But the complexity of the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) design means it is extraordinarily difficult to build. This type of reactor is, he said, perhaps in an unguarded moment, "unconstructable".
Roulstone, who runs the Master's programme in nuclear engineering in Cambridge, described the proposed EPR nuclear power station at Hinkley Point as similar in concept to "a cathedral within a cathedral" which would stretch the ability of any business to build it.
<snip>
The EPR design is deceased, madam
Roulstone went on to say that Areva, the French company that owns the EPR design, is no longer actively selling power stations of this type.
In those countries still looking to expand nuclear power, such as Saudi Arabia, China and Turkey, Areva is now pushing an alternative reactor. In China, where several EPRs are currently being constructed, the authorities have indicated that they will not use the design for future power plants.
In other words, the Hinkley Point design is already regarded as a failure by those with most knowledge of it. In Finland and in Normandy, where the EPR is already under construction, delays of several years and enormous cost overruns are crippling the projects.
<snip>