No reactor vendor is going to offer a turnkey nuclear power plant in the UK after the cost and schedule overruns experienced at Olkiluoto-3, said British Energy's chief executive Bill Coley in late April at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers' Nuclear New Build conference in London.
I've seen more innovative contracting modalities in the UK than elsewhere.
Dan Lipman, Westinghouse

Any new build was "likely to be in partnership with others," because reactor vendors are not going to be willing to take on all the risk.

Dan Lipman, Westinghouse senior vice president nuclear power plants, agreed, but said the UK market was very active in exploring alternative contracting arrangements. "I've seen more innovative contracting modalities in the UK than elsewhere," Lipman said.

Lipman said Westinghouse's deals in China were not engineering, procurement and construction contracts, but E&P-only contracts. Westinghouse's two secured new reactor contracts in the US were EPC turnkey contracts, but in an alliance with the Shaw Group, so the risk was shared. "We have also looked at doing turnkey contracts where we are the prime sub-contractor," Lipman said.

Coley restated that BE had reserved grid connections for 10.8-GW of new nuclear capacity at four possible sites in the UK beginning in 2016. Electricite de France, RWE, Centrica, Iberdrola, GDF-Suez -- the list goes on of major companies reportedly eager to play a role in UK nuclear.

British Energy, E.ON and EDF have asserted that a new reactor does not need subsidy, and can exist in an open market if the cost of carbon is present long term; if there is a clear solution for radioactive waste; and if planning and regulatory issues are streamlined.

The 12 months following a resolution of BE's ownership should demonstrate to what extent these claims are based on firmly-held convictions or bravado.