All posts by Alison Downes

What the election means for Sizewell C

This government had made a commitment to reach a Final Investment Decision (FID) on Sizewell C within the current parliament, but a 4 July election makes this look to be essentially impossible. Sizewell C’s future is therefore dependent on the election outcome. See bullet points for more details.
Stop Sizewell C said: “The impossibility of a Final Investment Decision on Sizewell C being made before the election lets the Conservatives off the hook for signing away another HS2. It also presents a likely Labour government, looking to drive down bills and reach net zero by 2030, an opportunity to focus on more cost effective renewable projects. We are going to do everything in our power to ensure that this election signals the death knell for slow, expensive, risky Sizewell C.”
  • Stop Sizewell C understands that the capital raise is still ongoing, and final bids have yet to be submitted, reportedly due by the end of June. A likely change in government may increase the risks perceived by investors and influence or even deter bids. The capital raise will be subject to a Value for Money (VfM) assessment. If, as reported, investors are seeking high returns, the VfM – and therefore the capital raise – is likely to fail.
  • In this event, Ministers would have to decide whether to take a FID with the taxpayer as Sizewell C’s majority stakeholder. An additional VfM assessment will be required as well as multiple internal procedural steps and approvals.
  • While Labour’s stated position is in favour of Sizewell C, the implications of having to make a FID with billions of taxpayers’ money and which would additionally push much of the risk and cost of the project onto household bills via use of the RAB funding model, in addition to the impossibility of Sizewell C contributing to the goal of net zero by 2030, may give pause. Rising costs and inflation make the current government’s estimate of a Sizewell C RAB costing consumers on average £1 month improbable.
  • A new government would be expected to conduct a Spending Review ahead of an autumn budget, which seems likely to also lead to a pause before any decision about a Sizewell C FID was made.
  • Sizewell C Chair Rob Holden acknowledged the risk associated with a change in government telling the The Times recently “Clearly there has to be a risk there. There is with any big decision on this.” In the same interview Rob Holden also highlighted that further widening of the gap between Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C would reduce any replication “benefits”.
  • Even in the very unlikely event a FID could be fast-tracked, pre-election guidance states that Ministers should “observe discretion” in making big announcements. This must be especially pertinent if a large commitment of taxpayers’ money was necessary for a Sizewell C FID. Having sucked up £2.5bn in taxpayers’ money already, which we understand is all committed, it’s possible yet more funds will be allocated to keep the project going over this period of uncertainty.

EADT Opinion: Nuclear Industry Should Learn to Deliver Projects on Budget and Time

It’s been quite a start to the year. Firstly Energy Minister Andrew Bowie visited Suffolk for the triggering of Sizewell C’s legal planning mechanism – the Development Consent Order – a step we considered wholly premature given that a Final Investment Decision is still some months away. Someone had thought it would be nice if the Minister used the same spade David Cameron had used to ‘break ground’ at Hinkley Point C in 2013. I’m not sure this was the best idea, given Hinkley C’s problems, and the fact that it was another three years before Hinkley C reached a Final Investment Decision in 2016.

A week later the government announced a further £1.3 billion would be invested in Sizewell C, taking the taxpayers’ stake to a total of £2.5 billion. This news was pushed out the night before a crucial EDF board meeting about Hinkley C, presumably because the government knew bad news was coming. 

As indeed it was….Hinkley C will now cost up to £35 billion, almost twice the £18 billion when contracts were signed. Including inflation, the cost becomes a jaw-dropping £46 billion. Completion of Reactor 1 has been pushed to 2029 to 2031, with Reactor 2 about a year later, making the project as much as 6 years late – or 14 years if you consider former EDF chief Vincent de Rivaz’s infamous 2007 claim that we’d all be cooking our Christmas turkeys with HInkley’s power in 2017.

France now appears to be threatening its involvement in Sizewell C unless the UK stumps up more money for HInkley C. Finance Minister, Bruno Le Mair is reported to be planning discussions with Jeremy Hunt, and has previously made no secret of his view that EDF should prioritise the French government’s objectives back home.

This leaves our government in a pickle. The official line is “Hinkley C is not a government project so any additional costs or schedule overruns are the responsibility of EDF and its partners”. How then do Ministers plan to explain to the electorate about Sizewell C, with its billions of taxpayers’ money and intended use of the RAB finance model which would put a nuclear tax on the energy bills of every household throughout construction? Given the inevitability of Sizewell C costing more and taking longer than claimed, the line would have to be “Sizewell C is a government project so any additional costs or schedule overruns are the responsibility of the taxpayer and consumers”. Good luck with that one. How can the government justify doubling our hard earned taxes into Sizewell C when Ministers clearly knew that Hinkley C was spinning out of control? Sizewell C has all the makings of another HS2, sucking up public resources while our schools and the NHS struggle.

Some of you are no doubt saying “you would say that, wouldn’t you, being Stop Sizewell C”? Well it’s worth remembering that Stop Sizewell C’s former iteration, Theberton and Eastbridge Action Group on Szewell (TEAGS) was not opposed to the project but sought to mitigate its impacts. It was a combination of – as one of my colleagues put it – “EDF’s tin ear” and its disastrous track record of building this type of reactor that pushed us into opposition. I’ve been involved since TEAGS was formed. As a Theberton resident with a background in campaigning on environmental and human rights issues, I felt I could make a contribution. Hard to believe that was more than ten years ago!, 

But it’s not just us. Even pro-nuclear, energy advisor Michael Liebreich, in his blog “Don’t say I didn’t warn you”, is in despair about the failure of largescale nuclear projects to deliver. He writess ”I..demand that the nuclear industry owns its problems, stops blaming activists or regulators, and learns to deliver projects on time and on budget. Otherwise, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, “if Hinkley C, Flamanville and Olkiluoto are the way the nuclear industry treats its projects, it does not deserve to have any”.

Alison Downes is Executive Director of Stop Sizewell C

Not in OUR Backyard: Letter to Energy Secretary

Dear Secretary of State,

We are appalled to learn that two of your Ministers are objecting to energy infrastructure in their own constituency, when their roles demand promoting significant infrastructure development elsewhere.

Minister of State Graham Stuart is reported to be opposing a Geological Disposal Facility in his constituency, and we understand that Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Andrew Bowie’s role was changed in December, from Minister for Nuclear and Networks to Minister for Nuclear and Renewables, after raising concerns about new pylons. Such rank hypocrisy will damage any faith the public might have in Ministers’ consideration of where to locate damaging infrastructure.

In particular, how can Graham Stuart’s position as Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero be tenable when the government deems the establishment of a GDF essential as a means to deal with legacy waste and support its policy of up to 24GW of new nuclear? By attempting to write off South Holderness, Minister Stuart is effectively pointing the finger at West Cumbria and Lincolnshire to accept what he considers unacceptable.

It is unreasonable and unfair to impose damaging projects on communities that Ministers are not prepared to accept themselves. Our belief in the integrity of your Ministers and the benefits of engaging with them has been severely undermined.

Yours sincerely,

Alison Downes, Co Chair, DESNZ Nuclear NGO Forum
on behalf of NGO members of the Forum:
Low Level Radiation and Health Conference, Bradwell B Action Network, Stop Hinkley, Blackwater Against New Nuclear, Nuclear Awareness Group, Stop Sizewell C, People Against Wylfa B, Nuclear Information Service, Cumbria Trust, Together Against Sizewell C, Ayrshire Radiation Monitoring Group, Highlands Against Nuclear Transport, Nuclear Free Local Authorities, Friends of the Earth Nuclear Network, Low Level Radiation Campaign, MEDACT, Nuclear Education Trust, Parents Concerned About Hinkley, West Cumbria and North Lakes Friends of the Earth.