AN EMBARRASSING rise in the cost of Sizewell B, Britain’s first pressurised-water
reactor, looks set to prolong the country’s latest nuclear power drama:
the Hinkley public inquiry. The hearing into the Central Electricity Generating
Board’s plan to build the country’s second PWR in Somerset, southwest England,
was scheduled to end on Wednesday. But on Monday the board revealed that
Sizewell B will cost 10 per cent more to build than anticipated, Hinkley
3 per cent more.
The inquiry is almost certain to be adjourned for three weeks to allow
participants to comment on the new information submitted at the eleventh
hour. The board blames a combination of factors for the price hike. The
cost of civil engineering, the nuclear steam supply system and the hardware
and software for the reactor controls and instrumentation have all increased,
justifying the board’s opponents who have long claimed the CEGB cannot get
its nuclear sums right.
Hinkley C, the scheme under consideration, is virtually a replica of
Sizewell B, the country’s first 1170-megawatt PWR, now under construction
on the east coast. The PWR is based on a design developed by the American
firm Westinghouse.
The CEGB is promoting PWR technology as the successor to 30 years of
reliance on home-grown gas-cooled reactors. The board wants the government
to approve a further two PWRs costing Pounds sterling 1500 million each.
Both power stations would be lookalikes of Sizewell B and Hinkley C.
Britain has blundered from one type of reactor to another, building
a succession of prototypes. This approach culminated in a disastrous sequence
of advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs). The board now wants to emulate…
