EDF has admitted delays with the reactor being built in France, but says that UK plants are the target. Above, one of the oldest generation reactors at Sizewell in Suffolk. Photograph: Graham Turner for the GuardianEDF, the French company in the heart of plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations in Britain, admitted that a similar plant under construction in France is about to take almost twice as long and cost nearly twice the expected price.
The European pressurized reactor (EPR) at Flamanville, Normandy, is now slated to open in 2016 and cost € 6bn (￡ 5.2bn) instead of the original departure date of 2012 and a cost of € 3 billion.
EDF said last year that the site had fallen behind its original schedule but insisted that it would be ready to generate electricity in 2014 and cost € 5bn. A spokesman for the French company said a starting date of 2018 for new power plants could be adjusted, British but there was no reason to take ￡ 20bn plans for Sizewell, Suffolk, and would affect Hinkley Point, Somerset, by similar problems like those seen in France.
"Experience at Flamanville is invaluable, as we in the United Kingdom. Whenever EDF builds the EPR, increases our competence. We are already seeing the benefits of experience from existing projects, "he said.
But friends of the Earth (foe) said the latest delays only would make wind to nuclear and other technologies greener more competitive. "Britain's energy future is renewable energy," said Simon Bullock, activist of the enemy's economy.
EDF fault "structural and economic reasons" for the latest delay to Flamanville 3, highlighting that it is the first nuclear power plant to be built in France for 15 years.
The company said progress was slowed by two serious accidents that forced him to suspend civil engineering jobs and from changes that may need to be incorporated as a result, the explosion of the Fukushima nuclear power in Japan. There had also been increasing material costs.
But the same story was played in Finland, where another French company, Areva, has been hit by delays on the construction of a reactor designed like that. EDF is building two plants of this design in China and considers that the collective experience can only help when it comes to the construction of four EPRs in Britain.
The French company expressed optimism that the British Government's initiatives to fast-track schedule for the great energy and introduce a plan for the price of carbon will put the newbuild in Britain on the track.
EDF has requested a license for its EPR in the United Kingdom and has already begun preliminary work site in Suffolk and Somerset. But he admits that the commencement date of 2018 for electricity production could be set back this autumn.
没有评论:
发表评论