Fears grow over waning interest in new nuclear

by Janet Wood

Chinese interest in the UK’s plans for nuclear new-build seemed this week to be moving from later to earlier projects, as new questions arose over what investment would be available for later projects.

China had been expected to bid jointly for Horizon, the nuclear joint venture put up for sale earlier this year by RWE and Eon. Horizon has two sites in prospect, at Wylfa in Wales and Oldbury in Gloucestershire, and Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation had been expected to bid with French reactor supplier Areva. However, Areva now says it will not bid.

The remaining bidders were thought to be without Chinese investors: Reuters named them as Westinghouse with parent company Mitsubishi, and Hitachi with Canada’s SNC-Lavalin.

Chinese interest was said to be focused instead on taking a stake in the first nuclear plant in the queue, EDF Energy’s project at Hinkley Point. Centrica is already a partner and EDF Energy has previously said it would welcome more.

Last week, a spokesman for the third project in the pipeline, Moorside in Cumbria, was forced to restate that parent companies Iberdrola and GDF-Suez remained committed. However, neither firm would respond to reports that Iberdrola was ready to pull out.

Meanwhile, energy minister John Hayes has said that the final draft of the Energy Bill will be published by the end of the calendar year, instead of in the autumn as originally promised. The industry will have to wait until the final draft to find out exactly what support will be available for nuclear under the contracts for difference regime.

This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 12th October 2012.

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