Soaring Costs Threaten To Blow Nuclear Plans Apart (UK)

[bananas]

http://thegwpf.org/energy-news/5643-soaring-costs-threaten-to-blow-nuclear-plans-apart.html

Soaring Costs Threaten To Blow Nuclear Plans Apart
Monday, 07 May 2012 07:40 Tim Webb, The Times

Energy policy is hanging by a thread after the only credible company left to build nuclear reactors in Britain increased the price by 40 per cent to £7 billion each, The Times has learnt.

The soaring estimated costs could scupper the French state-backed EDF Energy’s project to build two reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset. It would also leave Britain’s nuclear programme — and its energy policy — in tatters.

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EDF Energy will decide by the end of the year whether to proceed with the £14 billion plan, but experts said that the rising costs — and its parent company’s deteriorating financial position — made this less likely.

EDF Energy has briefed its partner Centrica about the internal cost review, which makes it even harder for the owner of British Gas to come on board. Speculation has mounted in recent weeks, fuelled by briefings by Centrica advisers, that the British company will pull out of the joint venture, for which it would have to pay a fifth of the costs. It is understood that the rise in costs for Hinkley Point is based in part on EDF Energy’s experience in building its first “third generation” modern reactor in Flamanville, France. The facility was supposed to be completed this year but is four years behind schedule. EDF Energy said last summer that it would cost €6 billion (£4.9 billion), compared with an original figure of €3.3 billion. It is understood that the cost is likely to increase.

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Full story (subscription required) http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/utilities/article3406852.ece

[kristopher]

1. Levy Florida 2 reactors went from $14B to $24B & from 10 yrs to 18 yrs to plan and build.

Progress Energy raises price tag, delays start date of Levy nuclear plant
By Ivan Penn, Times Staff Writer
Posted: May 01, 2012 09:53 AM


Progress Energy announced Tuesday that the cost for its proposed Levy County nuclear plant could reach a new high of $24 billion with a new start date of 2024.

The new estimate, included among documents filed with the state Public Service Commission for its annual nuclear cost recovery, would raise the cost of the project almost $2 billion and delay when it comes online from 2021 to 2024 — almost a decade after its original projected date of 2016.

...

Progress' proposal would increase the amount customers pay from the current $3.05 per 1,000 kilowatt hours of usage for advances fees for Levy and its existing Crystal River nuclear plant to $5.09 beginning Jan. 1, 2013.

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"Nuclear power," Dolan said, "remains a key component of Progress Energy's balanced solution strategy to meet our customers' future energy needs with efficient, carbon-free electricity."***

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/progress-energy-raises-price-tag-delays-start-date-of-levy-nuclear-plant/1227830