Hinkley Point

[MrCarPark]

So with the EU nearly getting to the point of letting us build a power station,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/en...

my question is: Why is it so bloody expensive?


£16bn vs. £4bn for the original 90s British design, at original costs, say £8bn now adjusted for inflation.

So it's twice the price for a simplified design. Can anyone shed any light?

[MrCarPark]

ralphrj said:

MrCarPark said:

So with the EU nearly getting to the point of letting us build a power station,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/en...

my question is: Why is it so bloody expensive?


£16bn vs. £4bn for the original 90s British design, at original costs, say £8bn now adjusted for inflation.

So it's twice the price for a simplified design. Can anyone shed any light?

When you say £4bn for the original 90s design are you referring to Sizewell B? If so, construction actually commenced in 1987 so allowing for inflation from then to now the cost would be £10bn today. When you consider that Hinkley Point C is a twin reactor plant rather than a single reactor then that probably accounts for a lot of the extra cost.

IIRC Sizewell B was £1.6bn before the costs for the other cancelled stations were lumped onto it giving a final cost of £2bn. Sizewell C, a twin PWR like Hinkley Point C was budgeted at £3.6bn. All at 1989 costs I think (could have been '87) so I guestimate £8bn now for an equivalent station.

[MrCarPark]

kingofdbrits said:

Just think about your job, whatever it is, and take your due diligence to the extreme and you'll need a sizeable workforce.
Example being, we had to prove where the raw materials came from and we had to prove the QA throughout the entire chain of custody for the element we were actually using.
You put those kinds of demands on businesses and just watch the costs rocket.

It was the same for Sizewell B though. I'm not aware anything has fundamentally changed in nuclear QA since then, but if it has then maybe that's part of the answer.

[MrCarPark]

The price has doubled again in a fortnight!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/en...

Starting to look a bit fishy...

[MrCarPark]

knitware said:

In the 90's there was no costing for the decommissioning of nuclear plant. The new builds take into account the removal and disposal of spent fuel and the decommissioning, ie the demolition, of the site to be returned one day to green field (in around 100 years ish) .

I figured this might be it. There are myriad other insurances too:

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NP-Hinkley-Point...