Hitachi secures future of planned British nuclear plants
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The future of two planned British nuclear power facilities has been secured after Hitachi stepped in to take over their construction.
The Japanese company revealed this morning that it had agreed to buy the Horizon Nuclear Power venture for £696m from German companies RWE and E.ON, which earlier this year announced their intention to withdraw from the UK’s new nuclear programme.
As well as creating thousands of construction jobs, British engineering expertise will also play a major role in the new plants with Babcock International and Rolls-Royce signing agreements with Hitachi to plan and deliver the programme.
Hitachi president Hiroaki Nakanishi said in a statement: ‘Today starts our 100-year commitment to the UK and its vision to achieve a long-term, secure, low-carbon, and affordable energy supply.’
Energy minister John Hayes said: ‘This was a commercial deal but we have been active in impressing on all interested parties that the UK economy is open and stable and our commitment to new nuclear energy is stronger than ever.’
The Hitachi Horizon programme involves building two to three c1,300MW plants using its advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) technology at each of Horizon’s sites at Wylfa, Anglesey, and Oldbury, Gloucestershire, with the first unit becoming operational in the first half of the 2020s.
The advanced boiling water reactor design used by Hitachi is in operation in Japan
Hitachi intends to invest up to £20bn in the UK through the programme and expects about 60 per cent of the value of the first plant in terms of goods and services to be sourced from within the UK, a figure that could increase for subsequent units.
The company also expects the plants will create between 5,000 and 6,000 direct jobs at each site during the construction phase and a further 1,000 permanent jobs per site upon start of the operation of each site.
The company has also promised to make a significant investment in training engineers, construction teams and operating staff for the plants, and to work with its partners and with local colleges and universities to develop training programmes and create a strong, permanent and exportable base of nuclear skills in the UK.
Once the transaction is complete, Hitachi’s next step will be achieving licence acceptance under the Generic Design Assessment process as governed by the Office for Nuclear Regulation.
ABWRs were the first of the ‘Generation III’ family of fission reactors, which standardise technology used in earlier pressurised water reactors, improve fuel and thermal efficiency, and bring in ‘passive safety’ features — systems that can stop the nuclear chain reaction and make the reactor safe in the absence of power.
Safety features include three independent emergency core cooling systems, each one capable of making the plant safe, and a basaltic reinforced concrete ‘core catcher’ below the reactor to contain the core in the event of a meltdown. Unlike the EPR reactor design proposed by EDF, which is to build other nuclear power stations in the UK, ABWRs are in operation — there are four in Japan, with another due for completion this year, and another being built in Taiwan.
RWE and E.ON formed the Horizon company in 2009 with the intention of building plants in Gloucestershire and Anglesey.
But in March 2012 the companies announced they wanted to sell the venture and move away from the UK nuclear power market after the German government’s decision to shut down its nuclear facilities, which itself follow the Fukushima disaster in March 2011.
Readers' comments (6)
John Davies | 30 Oct 2012 3:34 pm
Better late than never !!!!
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Robert Freer | 30 Oct 2012 3:43 pm
Three is a start but we need 30 and a government policy to ensure that it happens
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Editor's comments | 30 Oct 2012 3:43 pm
So far, five sites have been confirmed for new reactors: Sellafield, Oldbury, Wylfa, Sizewell and Hinkley Point.
Philip Baker | 30 Oct 2012 4:09 pm
Today we should thank Hitachi for their intervention in the UK electrical T&D system.
We should also be caning the past governments and regulators, who failed to ensure that those original purchasers, built reserves that Hitachi are prepared to invest.
Companies, who continue to benefited from the profits of privatisation.
Companies who have either cut and run, or failed to amass, the financial reserves.
Companies, who wasted the gravy train of excessive customer tariff charges, on outlandish costs of iconic empire building, excessive remuneration and dividends.
The UK is always going to need a nuclear generated base load.
As long as we remain at the mercy of those companies who trade in oil and gas , and are prepared to blackmail the UK tax payer for their services.
Yes the UK tax payer will lose the profit surpluses, that will reward Hitachi for its investment. We accept that, although many tax payers believe the UK should be footing this bill and redistributing those profits in our society, instead of showering tax payer grants on bloated Corporate's, who fiddle their books to maintain an ever increasing tax payer revenue stream.
I also hope, Hitachi builds a DC link under the Severn and supplies South Wales.
This will take away the creeping control of EDF and Centrica, who had that intent, when they entered the development programme of Hinckley C.
Let’s hope that other World investors will make a pitch, for the other base load stations we require, and dilute the grip of the cartels, who continue to hold out for more tax payer's money.
Hitachi has shot the UK’s generating investment fox, and the likes of EDF, Centrica and Eon need to stop vacillating and make real investments, for the rock solid returns, that they can depend on, and are already getting on the cheap.
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CG | 31 Oct 2012 9:39 am
Let's wait to see how much the electricity is going to cost before we cheer.
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Anonymous | 9 Nov 2012 8:15 am
After 5 years of regulators' intense effort studying the EPR and AP1000 designs and seeking clarification on 31 and ~50 issues respectively. GE-Hitachi wants to re-enter the GDA with a new design?
I see trouble ahead for the ONR; if any effort is taken away from the EPR (or the AP1000 if Westinghouse starts reviewing the AP1000 issues) then EdF or Westinghouse will probably sue (like Virgin and the railways). Alternatively, if they don't review the ABWR design quickly they will be accused of holding back Britain and risking investment and jobs.
Unless GE-Hitachi decides to build EPR or AP1000 reactors, the only winners will be the anti-nuclear organisations benefitting from all the divisions it can enflame and accusations it can make about the GDA not fully considering the ABWR design issues carefully enough.
Unfortunately nuclear safety and political expediancy (or financial success, ...) will always be pushing in opposite directions. I hope GE-Hitachi is taking advice on the UK regulatory system, as it is very different from the rest of the world and it will uphold its independence of political and financial pressure to protect the public (or it will be torn to shreds by the blacklash from existing organisations it regulates!).
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Colin Megson | 11 Nov 2012 2:00 pm
Anyone with a modicum of foresight for the conditions facing the generations of their children and grandchildren, should concern themselves with energy wars and water wars, above all else.
With a 9 billion population by 2050, only one energy source can equitably supply all of the energy needs to every individual on the planet and do so forever.
That energy source is breeder reactors. The arithmetic is simple. You can do it yourself and have the confidence to know uranium and thorium fuels are inexhaustible, even in an energy-rich future for every single person.
The UK could spend its 'New Nuclear' budget on 'PRISMs to Power the UK', instead of PWRs and ABWRs, with all of their anti-nuke baggage.
We could have tomorrows technology today and boost our manufacturing industries with an atmospheric pressure reactor that could be made in its entirety right here in the UK.
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