13 Mar (NucNet): Twelve EU states that signed a joint communique in London yesterday expressed their belief that nuclear energy can contribute to the EU’s future low-carbon energy mix, but called for the “right investment environment” to be created for the construction of new reactors.
The countries that signed the agreement are the UK, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.
They said in the joint communique that they are “committed to collaboration on safety and creating greater certainty for investors in low-carbon infrastructure projects”, the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said.
Signatories pledged to press ahead with the deployment of low-carbon technologies, including nuclear power, renewable energy, and carbon capture and storage.
The communique said signatories noted that nuclear power can play “a key role” in the EU to help ensure security of supply and reduce carbon emissions. Nuclear can also provide economic benefits and supply consumers with cost-effective electricity.
But the communique noted that EU member states wishing to construct new nuclear power stations signalled that an investment environment must be created “taking account of the long-term nature of nuclear infrastructure projects in the EU”.
The UK government is in talks with EDF Energy over possible subsidies – in the form of a contract-for-difference (CfD) regime – to build the UK’s first new nuclear plant in a generation at Hinkley Point in Somerset.
The government says CfDs would stabilise returns for generators at a fixed level known as a “strike price” and insulate consumers by clawing back money from generators if the market price is higher than the strike price.
The UK also announced yesterday it is joining the Jules Horowitz experimental research reactor programme in France, as part of a pledge by both countries to work closely on research and development.
A total of 12.5 million pounds (about 14.4 million euro, 18.6 million US dollars), has been committed to the project, which will allow UK-based academics and the nuclear industry guaranteed access to the reactor, and enable collaboration on safety and innovation.
The UK’s participation in the Jules Horowitz reactor programme will be led by its National Nuclear Laboratory
The laboratory said in a statement that having access to facilities that will provide information on how nuclear fuel and other materials behave in a nuclear reactor is an essential part of any advanced fuel or reactor development programme.
It said: “Both regulators and utilities view such test facilities as vital in terms of providing underpinning safety research, operational data and computer code validation data for a relatively low cost.”
The Jules Horowitz reactor, under construction at the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (atomic and alternative energy commission; CEA) site in Cadarache, southern France, is a materials test reactor that will be used partly for the development and qualification of materials and nuclear fuel used in the nuclear industry.
The reactor is being funded by a consortium of research institutes from several European member states including France (CEA), Belgium (SCK), Czech Republic (NRI), Finland (VTT), Spain (CIEMAT) and the European Commission. Major industrial companies such as EDF, Areva and Vattenfall are also consortium members.
The CEA has also signed bilateral agreements related to the project with India’s Department of Atomic Energy and Japan’s Atomic Energy Agency. It said discussions are taking place with other European and international partners to enlarge the consortium.
Yesterday’s communique is online:
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/140109/final_EU_Nuclear_Energy_Communiqu_.pdf
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