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China’s Share Of Hinkley Point C Will Be Up To 40%

By David Dalton
21 October 2013

China’s Share Of Hinkley Point C Will Be Up To 40%
Hinkley Point C gets the go-ahead. Photo courtesy EDF Energy.

21 Oct (NucNet): EDF Group will take a share of 45 to 50 percent in the project announced today to build two EPR reactors at Hinkley Point C in the UK, with France’s Areva having a 10 percent share and China General Nuclear Corporation (CGN) and China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) 30-40 percent between them.

Areva said discussions are taking place with a shortlist of other interested parties who could take up to 15 percent of the project to build the UK’s first Generation III reactor units.

The company also said in a statement that finalising agreements with industrial partners for equity funding is one of “the remaining key steps” necessary before a final investment decision can be taken. EDF said that decision will be taken by July 2014.

EDF said key terms of the contracts for the four most important suppliers to the project have been finalised. The contracts will be with Bouygues TP/Laing O’Rourke (civil work); Costain (marine work); Alstom (turbines); and Areva (instrumentation and control, nuclear steam supply system and fuel).

Commissioning of the first unit is scheduled for 2023. EDF said this means the power will be delivered when it is needed, at a time when the existing fleet of Generation II advanced gas-cooled reactors will be coming towards the end of operation, allowing a transition from one generation of nuclear power to the next.

The construction cost of the two EPR units, expressed in 2012 terms, is expected to be 14 billion pounds (GBP) (22.6 billion US dollars, 16.5 billion euros). In addition to the construction costs, the project and its partners will have incurred GBP 2 billion of other costs before first operation. These include land purchases, achieving the different consents and construction of a spent fuel storage facility. This means that the total costs to first operation are expected to be close to GBP 16 billion in 2012 terms.

Areva said the partnership with China will give CGN and CNNC the opportunity to gain experience in the UK and will support their long-term objective of becoming established nuclear developers in the UK “in partnership with EDF Group”.

A number of suitably qualified Chinese personnel will join the project to work alongside members of the project team, subject to the usual approvals from the UK regulators.

One of the key commercial terms for the construction of Hinkley Point C, the first new nuclear power station in the UK in a generation, was agreement on a “strike price” of GBP 89.50 per megawatt-hour, which will increase in line with inflation, the government said.

The strike price has been the subject of negotiations between EDF and the government that began last year. It is the guaranteed price at which EDF will be able to sell the electricity it generates at Hinkley Point C.

Areva said preliminary work for Hinkley Point C is “well advanced” and the EPR reactor design has been approved. Regulators have awarded relevant nuclear site licences, labour relations agreements are in place and the UK government has granted permission for construction.

Areva has already gained design approval for its EPR technology, making it the only Generation III reactor design certified in the UK.

EDF Group, through EDF Energy, operates 15 nuclear reactors in the UK. CGN operates eight units and has 15 under construction, including two EPR reactors being built in a joint venture with EDF at Taishan. CNNC has nine units in operation and 12 under construction.

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