Planned Somerset nuclear plant on hold ? or not ?

Aurora · Post by **Aurora** » 27 May 2012, 19:24

The Guardian - 27/05/12

Uncertainty over nuclear power renaissance grows as French energy firm delays decision on Hinkley Point.

Article continues ...

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 27 May 2012, 20:28

Ha!

The soonest a new reactor will be built in Somerset could now be 2021, around four years later than originally hoped.

Seems that kicking the can down the road is the new zeitgeist.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 27 May 2012, 22:51

EDF said it was making "good progress" on site preparation at Hinkley Point after winning approval from West Somerset council in February.

So presumably they're trashing the site for no purpose. Glad I don't get to see it from up on Exmoor or the Quantocks like I used to.

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 28 May 2012, 02:16

They're probably angling for a bigger government subsidy to go ahead with the work.

mobbsey · Post by **mobbsey** » 28 May 2012, 06:51

They're French... what's Prince Philip been saying recently??

Post by **adam2** » 28 May 2012, 12:32

I suspect that this is not going to be built.
If there is not the money or political will to build it now, will there be more money or more support in four years time ?
I rather doubt it.

Time to get serious about wind power I feel, including perhaps at Hinkly, which already has access roads and a high voltage grid connection.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 28 May 2012, 13:25

adam2 wrote:Time to get serious about wind power I feel, including perhaps at Hinkly, which already has access roads and a high voltage grid connection.

They didn't manage to build a wind farm next to Hinkley Point last time they tried. I think that's why Lady Gass sold the land to EDF.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 31 May 2012, 18:13

Is that her real name

?

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 31 May 2012, 18:41

RenewableCandy wrote:Is that her real name ?

Yup

Post by **adam2** » 16 Jul 2012, 09:29

According to reports in todays Times, EDF want a substantial subsidy to build the proposed nuclear reactors.
A subsidy per KWH produced for decades, not a one off grant or subsidy towards the capital costs.
A figure of £165 per MWH is mentioned, though it is not entirely clear if they mean a total price, including subsidy, of £165, or a subsidy of £165 on top of the market price.

This is several times the present wholesale electricity price.

During the life of the nuclear plant, one might expect the price of FF to increase very substantialy, so it could be argued that we should take a long term view, and that eventually nuclear will pay its way.

OTOH, wind power is already cheaper than that, and may well become cheaper still as large wind turbines are mass produced.

The growing number of HVDC interconnectors between the UK and other nations make large scale wind more and viable.

Post by **adam2** » 16 Jul 2012, 16:06

kenneal - lagger wrote:They're probably angling for a bigger government subsidy to go ahead with the work.

Absolutely, see preceeding post !

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 04 Oct 2012, 09:59

It's not entirely on hold. There's protests this weekend (http://http://www.stophinkley.org/).

And this is an interesting discussion between Theo Simon (of Seize the Day) and George Monbiot
http://theosimon.wordpress.com/2012/10/ ... s-problem/

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 04 Oct 2012, 11:23

JohnB wrote:http://theosimon.wordpress.com/2012/10/ ... s-problem/

Cool, that's a brilliant piece. Poor old Monbiot, he's painted himself into a corner.

Theo wrote:It is as if we were saying to our children “We have had to behave irrationally (nuclear) to avoid behaving even more irrationally (fossil fuels), because we didn’t care enough about you to take a rational, but more politically challenging, route”.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 04 Oct 2012, 12:37

This is what I posted on Facebook when I shared the link:

"Interesting discussion between Theo Simon (of Seize the Day) and George Monbiot on Hinkley C, and nuclear power in general. To me it comes down to a choice between nukes now and sod the future (when we're all dead, but grandchildren will clean up the mess, if they can), and taking bold action now to reduce demand and put everything into renewables.

I don't have any children, so it won't affect my descendants, but I'd still rather cover the countryside in wind turbines (if that's what it takes) than leave a nuclear waste problem, as well as a wrecked climate from fossil fuel use, to future generations."

alex · Post by **alex** » 08 Nov 2012, 23:22

Well us in Hinkley territory (TA5 postcode) are now in limbo awaiting the outcome of what was affectionately known as the IPC, where permission will be granted (or denied)

In the meantime we in our village are having to endure to comings and goings of several HGV's each and every day whilst they (EdF) continue to raze the ground in readiness to proceed. Of course they had planning permission to rip out hedges, destroy habitat etc, and there was a time scale which appears to have since expired, so the movements I suppose are now under a different premise.

Alex