The UK, often a trailblazer for Europe in financial markets, and with a government willing to take bold decisions on energy, could drag other European nations into the new "nuclear renaissance."
It's been over a decade since the last nuclear power plants were built anywhere in Europe, and the UK's plants are looking a bit old--the latest problem faced by the UK's nuclear generator British Energy is the outage of four units since October. These idle units could be pulling in wholesale market revenues in the region of GBP140,000 (Eur188,000) every hour. With the ageing plants offline, money doesn't just slip through British Energy's fingers, it gushes through and the British public have to pay more for their power as more expensive plants like coal and gas are used.
Why can't Britain be more like France?
Not a question many Britons ask themselves, but in the nuclear sphere, France reigns supreme. France is the EU's biggest nuclear power supplier, and its biggest electricity exporter. For years, the nuclear fleet of state-controlled Electricite de France, which supplies around 80% of the country's power, has been sold as a success story to the French public. The cheap marginal costs of the baseload power plants are touted as one justification for the state's subsidization of power tariffs to its people. The European Commission wants to wipe out state subsidies in wholesale energy markets, but if a country is willing to use more nuclear power plants than its neighbors, why can't they reap the rewards this brings?
EDF is confident it will have its new third-generation nuclear power plant online in Flamanville, Normandy, in 2012. It is also a front-runner in the race to build plants in the UK. The timing fits for the company--it wants to build the same design in the UK and can, if given the UK government's consent, transfer their resources over the Channel. Sounds easy...but other European utility giants like Germany's E.ON also want a share of the UK's nuclear pie--and on top of this, the lawyers are circling...
...with an unhappy Greenpeace having already delayed the UK government on making its nuclear decision, by taking the government to court and forcing a second public consultation on the matter, it may well wield the law-sword again. The ground looked to have been prepared last week when 17 academics and nuclear experts said the second consultation lay open to legal attack. So even though the government says "yes" today, the roll out of new stations may be slower if it is taken to court again. A delay of months rather than years perhaps.
And the consequences for Europe?
With guinea-pig plants under construction in France and Finland, these countries look the most likely locations in Western Europe for a re-vamped nuclear industry, but other countries are extending the lives of existing plants, as they try to bed carbon emissions reductions targets with a secure power supply situation. Germany's government is split on whether it should uphold its 2002 law which forbids new plant build and limits lifespans of existing plants. An emotional debate continues between its coalition partners.
Although the Belgian government is currently bogged down in the forming of its new coalition, it has said it wants to reverse a nuclear phase-out law and extend the life of some units. The International Energy Agency thinks the Swedes will also extend the running times of their plants. The Czech republic plans new plants. Despite a moratorium on nuclear build by the Green party, part of the coalition government, pressure is building on incumbent utility CEZ and the government to push ahead with new nuclear build to ensure the country does not shift from being Europe's second biggest net exporter of power to becoming a net importer. Several other Eastern European countries also want new plants inside their borders.
If UK enters wholeheartedly into the nuclear arena and the support over extending the lives of plants in Belgium and Germany can be rolled by the politicians into a will to build, the nuclear bug may prove contagious. After all, the UK started the first generation of nuclear plants in the 1950s, when it brought online the world's first commercial station. With an announcement today, the UK could, if not start, then catalyze the next generation of plants in Europe.
--Robin Sayles, reporter, Platts European Power Daily
