French Electrician EDF announced Thursday (September 27th) that he was hoping finishnext year, the 4,500 tonne concrete slab that will support the reactors at the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in England. "More than 3,200 people are working on this new nuclear power plant in Somerset. The project is on track for its next big step in 2019: the completion of a 4,500-tonne concrete platform on which the reactor buildings will rest, "said in a statement EDF Energy, the British subsidiary of the French giant , and his Chinese partner CGN.
The final investment decision for this project was taken exactly two years ago by EDF, which is the contracting authority, and CGN, which holds a third of the project, following an agreement with the British government which promotes the construction of new reactors and guaranteed the price of electricity that will be produced on site.
Nuclear Renewal
Beyond this gigantic concrete slab, the builders have put forward other advances in the works, such as the excavation of 750 meters of concreted underground tunnels. shelter cables and pipes or the completion, expected this year, of a wall 760 meters long and 13.5 meters high for protect this seaside powerhouse of any rising waters.
Symbol of nuclear revival in the country, the project consists of edify two EPR-type reactors in south-west England for a construction cost of 19.6 billion pounds (22 billion euros).
In the summer of 2017, EDF had mentioned a 15-month "risk" of delay for the first reactor, which was supposed to enter in service at the end of 2025, and nine months for the second, which must start six months later. In their statement Thursday, EDF Energy and CGN ensure that "the project aims for the first delivery at the end of 2025" for reactor number 1.
Crucial project
This plant aims to provide the equivalent of 7% of the electricity needs of the United Kingdom, where nuclear power plants built in the 20th century have closed or are about to reach the end of their life.
This project is crucial for EDF, which has experienced setbacks with its third-generation EPR reactors, particularly in Flamanville (Manche), where the construction site opened in 2007 could be completed by the end of 2019 for commercial commissioning in 2020, when the initial calendar was based on 2012. Its cost has meanwhile more than tripled, to 10.9 billion euros.
A first EPR was commissioned in June in China, in Taishan, as part of a project led to 51% by CGN, 30% by EDF and 19% by the electrician of Guangdong province.
