New Nuclear

HINKLEY C has reached a milestone in terms of appointing apprentices – with the latest influx meaning 500 are working toward the first new nuclear power plant in a generation based in Somerset. The latest intake of apprentices are indirectly contributing to Hinkley C, They are employed by HOST, a business providing accommodation for thousands of workers on site at the Hinkley Campus close to the site, and the Sedgemoor Campus based off of Bath Road in Bridgwater. The new apprentices will gain qualifications in a range of subjects including hospitality, accountancy, HR and catering.

Somerset Gazette 14th Nov 2019 read more »

The UK government is considering the Regulated Asset Base model for financing new nuclear projects. With the model allowing for revenues to be released during construction, could this model – already proven in other large infrastructure projects – break the impasse that has kept UK nuclear on the back foot in recent years? Chris Lo finds out. With financing of capital-intensive new nuclear builds proving an insurmountable obstacle for many of the scrapped projects in the UK, the government is investigating new ideas that could make nuclear builds more viable. The Contract for Difference (CfD) model – the main mechanism by which the government supports low-carbon energy projects like renewables and nuclear – sees developers sign a contract with the state-owned Low Carbon Contracts Company, through which they are paid a flat, indexed rate for electricity produced over a 15-year period. The rate paid represents the difference between the strike price and the reference price for the UK electricity market. While CfD has helped to support the expansion of renewable energy in the UK, there are growing suspicions that it’s not working for nuclear plant projects, which involve higher upfront capital costs, take far longer to build and are expected to produce reliable output for decades. Only time, and to some extent the results of the government’s RAB consultation, will tell whether RAB will be considered suitable as a means of financing new nuclear in the UK. In the short-term, Greatrex says adoption of the model could influence EDF’s decision on whether to commit to building a new plant at Sizewell, based broadly on the reactor technology and construction methods used at Hinkley. But in the years to come, he argues that financing through the RAB model could be significant for UK nuclear’s long-term prospects. “The Wylfa site, which is the Horizon project that is currently suspended, for example – that is a very good site for a nuclear construction, probably the best one in the UK,” he says. “The adoption of a RAB model could see those who currently don’t see a way of being developers come back into the UK as a result of having that type of mechanism.”

Power Technology 14th Nov 2019 read more »

A Liverpool City Region engineering firm has landed a contract to work on the next phase of a major Government nuclear research programme. The Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC) will take a key role in Phase 2 of the £3.6m Digital Reactor Design (DRD) programme, which is being led by technical services firm Wood, and funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. It’s in a bid to bring together experts from industry and academia to demonstrate cost savings from concept design, construction, operation and decommissioning of nuclear power reactors.

Business Live 14th Nov 2019 read more »

The National Nuclear Laboratory has created a new partnership to a develop and test new and emerging technologies in nuclear facilities across the UK. The NLL – which has its Central Laboratory facility at the Sellafield site and a rig hall facility in Workington – has awarded a four-year contract to Hull-based engineering business Spencer Group. Spencer Group will design, build and maintain experimental rigs to test the technologies before, if successful, they are deployed at nuclear sites, which could include Sellafield. The work will include a range of complex engineering challenges, such as the design and construction of processing plants, pressure vessels, mechanical handling equipment and specialist machinery. The group hopes the contract will further enhance its reputation in the nuclear sector. It has already been involved in removing nuclear waste at the former Chapelcross power station in Dumfries and Galloway and has secured work at Hinkley Point A site in Somerset.

Carlisle News & Star 14th Nov 2019 read more »

Environmentalists may have to accept ‘taboo’ nuclear energy to decarbonise. That’s the suggestion from Kirsty Gogan, Co-Founder and Global Director of environmental Non-Governmental Organisation Energy for Humanity (EFH), who spoke as part of the panel at Energy Live Expo last week in Westminster. She noted that although nuclear energy has long been considered a taboo subject within the environmental movement, it will have to play a part alongside all other low carbon options in the journey towards net zero energy supply. Ms Gogan explained humanity has to figure out how to continue to power civilisation without destroying it and said nuclear would probably be required to complement renewables and support their intermittent generation. However, she stressed that to do this, the nuclear industry urgently needs to drive down costs, accelerate deployment and start to deliver, suggesting that government needs to show commitment and provide certainty through regulatory frameworks to unlock investment from the private sector.

Energy Live News 14th Nov 2019 read more »

The urgency of the climate crisis means that the world cannot wait for a decade or more to find out whether emerging technologies – such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) – will work, the former chair of Parliament’s energy and climate change committee has warned. In a speech late last week at the 2019 forum of the New Nuclear Watch Institute, which he chairs, ex-MP Tim Yeo outlined his proposals for a European Green New Deal as an emergency response to the climate crisis. “It’s very now clear that the decarbonisation of the power sector must proceed very rapidly if we are going to meet net-zero by 2050. We can’t sit around waiting for an economic form of CCS to become viable in 10 or 15 years,” he said. Adding similar concerns over the timeframe for bringing forward large-scale storage, Yeo said the urgent nature of the climate challenge is a “big opportunity for the nuclear industry” which it has “got to seize”.

Edie 12th Nov 2019 read more »

“We see little economic rationale for new nuclear builds in the US or Western Europe, owing to massive cost escalations and renewables cost-competitiveness, which should lead to a material decline in nuclear generation in those countries by 2040,” S&P Global Ratings Credit Analyst Elena Anankina, said in a statement to accompany the reports. “But developing countries such as China and Russia continue to build new nuclear capacities to supply growing energy demand, supported by funding from the government or from state-related banks and significantly lower construction costs.”

World Nuclear News 12th Nov 2019 read more »

Hinkley Point C, the first new nuclear power station to be built in the UK in over 20 years, is one of the largest construction projects in the world. During peak construction up to 5,600 construction workers will be on site at any one time. Up to 55 tower cranes will work on the project, while Sarens’s 5,000 tonne capacity super heavy lift ring crane, SGC-250 (Big Carl), and Marr Contracting’s Favelle Favco M2480D Heavy Lift Luffing (HLL) tower crane, commonly dubbed ‘the world’s largest luffing jib tower crane’, are already being utilised there. International Cranes and Specialized Transport’s special Hinkley Point C site report is now available online with additional content including these jaw-dropping drone and time lapse videos, as well as previously unseen photographs.

International Cranes 11th Nov 2019 read more »

International Cranes 11th Nov 2019 read more »