Hinkley Point nuclear plant delay. Why?

Hinkley Point nuclear plant delay 'bonkers' says union.
"The government's surprise announcement to delay a final decision on Hinkley Point has been described as "bonkers" by the GMB union and "chaos" by Labour. The government then said it was "only right" to review the project and would make a decision by the autumn.Contracts were supposed to have been signed on Friday."

Bonkers? I dont think so.
we UK, are leaving the EU.
And they are trying to make it Very hard for US!
so it looks to me like this is a warning to the EU to play fair!
or we UK Dump thire Big money nuclear plant.

I dont follow france news at all.
so I have no idea what they are doing against the UK.
and the rest of the EU.
I bet they are playing a very nasty game to Black mail the UK.

a reply to: buddha
The reason is simple : It is a phenomenally expensive way of producing electricity. With a change of leader and change of fiscal policy the project can be dropped. Of course it will be surrounded by all sorts of fluff and nonsense so as not to make Osborne look too stupid.

I'm sure I heard our government will pay EDF £92/unit of power generated for the first 10 years - twice the market value. Is that BS?

a reply to: yorkshirelad

It is a phenomenally expensive way of producing electricity.

Only to build and start up. After that , low maintenance.

a reply to: buddha
According to French news, here is a snippet :

The board of French EDF on Thursday gave the go-ahead for the state-controlled utility's controversial project to build two nuclear reactors in Hinkley Point, Britain, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

The source said that following the resignation of board member Gerard Magnin in protest over EDF's strategy ahead of the meeting, the remaining 17 board members narrowly voted in favour of the final investment decision for the 18 billion pound ($24 billion) project, with 10 votes in favour and 7 votes against.

The source said the six staff representatives on the board, as well as Laurence Parisot, the former head of the French employers' organisation, voted against the project. Parisot was a candidate to become EDF chief executive in 2014.

If Magnin had not resigned and had voted against Hinkley Point, the Hinkley Point project would have been approved with a 10-8 vote, or just one vote to spare.

"This deal was riven with more dissent in the EDF board than anyone expected. It's an unprecedented division and a far closer (vote) than predicted," John Sauven, Greenpeace UK Executive director said.

EDF was not immediately available for comment.

EDF says the Hinkley Point project will be profitable and the French government argues it will support the French nuclear industry over the next decade.

The British government says that Hinkley Point, which will provide about seven percent of UK power, is crucial for securing power supply in the next decade.

Yet the project has strong critics on both side of the English Channel. French unions say the project is too big and costly for EDF and jeopardises the survival of the company.

Full story here : www.france24.com...

The French are not doing anything against the UK.

Kindest respects

Lag

My friends one o0f the top engineers there, id ask him whats it all about but i dont think hed want to risk his job by allowing me to put any info on the web.

Delay because:

1. Practical to review such a decision. As I want to reduce carbon and stop the industrialisation of the coutryside through solar farms and wind-farms, I am a fan of nuclear, but actually there are risks with massive projects like this. The French are doing the same in Finland and that nuclear project is a farce. Google "Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant", proving French involvement can be bad for progress.
2. Politics. It sends a message to France around BREXIT. If the French want to be obstructive to the UK involvement in Europe, then the UK can be obstrctive to French involvement in the UK.

a reply to: buddha

I started this thread thinking it was going ahead. www.abovetopsecret.com... Then suddenly not.

You're right. Why is the question.

I'm guessing maybe several smaller home produced reactors of proven design may be approved instead.

No-one has mentioned China. They are investing in this too.
Does the UK really want China to have direct access to its national power grid?
Risky much?

Two major things are:

1) EDF are footing the massive bill in return for an also massive increase in the cost of electricity generated. The new government may not be as willing to take make that trade off.

2) There's an awful lot of China all over the agreement and there have been rumbles of discontent for some time over that. The new government may not be happy to have China so heavily involved. I seem to recall that China actually gained some additional rights in relation to future developments, including providing Chinese-designed reactors? That idea alone scares the bejaysus out of me to be honest.

There are issues with the government trying to change this. The EDF board passed the proposal by quite a slim margin. Any attempt to renegotiate the deal to improve Britain's position is likely to be met by refusal. Thus, we're likely to be facing a "take it or leave it" situation.

We need the capacity, in fact we would benefit from having even more capacity, the issue is how much of our soul are we happy to sign away in order to get it.

a reply to: EvillerBob

In Essex.

"The idea that a Chinese state company will be given a site in the UK, not far from London, where they can use Chinese labour to construct a reactor to be made in China and using Chinese components would in our view constitute economic madness and raises serious safety issues."

www.bbc.co.uk...

This needs a complete rethink in my opinion. The cost of electricity produced is ludicrous being at least 3 times higher than average. The site is being built by the chinese and the french, where is British industry in all of this?
The way the french are acting towards the British after Brexit, they should be told to stick it!!