Britain鈥檚 main nuclear power generator has quietly halved its plans
to build four stations similar to Sizewell B, the country鈥檚 first pressurised
water reactor, now under construction on the east coast.
Nuclear Electric鈥檚 拢2 billion Sizewell plant is on target to
start generating electricity in 1994. It was originally planned as the first
of a series of four or five identical 1200-megawatt power stations based
on a design by the American company Westinghouse.
Now Nuclear Electric expects to build only two Sizewell B 鈥榗lones鈥� later
this decade before switching to a new type of reactor. Under the initial
plan the cost of starting the PWR programme would have been spread over
the series of stations. That prospect has now evaporated.
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Nuclear Electric鈥檚 chairman, John Collier, revealed this change of strategy
last week when he opened a new PWR training centre at Ipswich (Technology,
this issue). Collier said he thought Nuclear Electric would go ahead with
further Westinghouse reactors only at Hinkley Point, in Somerset, followed
by a second PWR at Sizewell.
The company will then consider a different design. The most promising
candidate is a reactor being designed jointly by the French company Framatome
and Germany鈥檚 Siemens. They are developing a 1400-megawatt advanced PWR
which should be available by the turn of the century. The design is likely
to become the predominant type of reactor across Europe.
Collier made it plain that by 2030 he expects Nuclear Electric to be
operating just six or eight nuclear power stations 鈥� all PWRs 鈥� at a handful
of sites in England and Wales. The company must cut its costs hugely by
1998, when it is due to lose its government subsidy of 拢1 billion
a year.
