China’s UK nuclear energy ambitions

It is reported that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has held high level talks with representatives from China.  A team of nuclear engineers and other representatives from the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute (SNERDI), an arm of the huge China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), met senior DECC officials in recent days.

Reports suggest that there is keen interest from China to enter the UK’s nuclear power generating market place by developing a plan with DECC to build up to 5 reactors at a cost of over £35 billion.  The initial premise is for CNNC and another state owned organisation, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation, to bid against each other for a stake in the Horizon consortium to construct new atomic plants at Wylfa in Wales and Oldbury in Gloucestershire.  It is also understood that the sites at Bradwell in Essex, Heysham in Lancashire and Hartlepool in County Durham are also of interest to the Chinese state.  The French giant EDF currently has the developmental interest in these sites.

China has operated its own atomic plants since 1994 and Keith Parker, chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association in London, said it was "highly encouraging" that China wanted to invest in the UK. "They have 14 of their own reactors in operation and 25 under construction and they use both Areva and Westinghouse designs that could be used here. It was clear from my discussions with them that they have international ambitions."

It is believed the Chinese see setting up in the UK as an opportunity to show they can operate in one of the world's toughest regulatory environments so they can then move into other markets in Africa and the Middle East.

Whether the Chinese enter the UK market is yet to be seen, however their state backed industry would appear to be aggressively chasing opportunities that the UK market offers and, whether the UK taxpayers’ money goes to France or China, it is certain that this represents an important development in the battle to keep the lights on in the UK.

Nuclear New Build UK Sites Announced

The Government has released details of the locations for the sites of the next generation of new build nuclear power generating stations.

The locations are at Bradwell in Essex, Hinkley Point, Somerset, Oldbury in Gloucestershire, Sellafield in West Cumbria, Sizewell in Suffolk and Wylfa on Anglesey, Hartlepool, Teeside & Heysham in Lancashire.  Each if the proposed sites is adjacent to an existing licensed nuclear site owned by either the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) or British Energy (BE).  During 2009/2010 the Government instructed that surplus land adjacent to licensed sited that were in public ownership be disposed of, netting a very tidy sum for the public coffers and it is anticipated that this land will form part of the new build programme.

The development of new power generating capacity for the UK is essential as by the end of the decade a significant proportion of the existing capacity will close, indeed by December 2017 there will a significant downturn in output as the generating capacity of some of the older generating stations is scheduled to come to an end.

Time passes slowly in the nuclear industry and the announcement of the sites is but the first step in the construction and commissioning of a nuclear power station.  There is the not insignificant challenge of tackling that other leviathan that is the planning process.  It is assumed that applications will come under the auspices of the Major Infrastructure Planning Unit, although how long this process will take is debatable.  With the huge numbers of interested parties involved the hoped for swift and efficient planning system may be stretched to the limit.