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16:15, 19-Sep-2017
Chinese nuclear giant mulls bid for Toshiba's $20bn UK reactor project
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China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) is eyeing up a bid for Toshiba’s troubled 15-billion-pound (20 billion US dollars) reactor project in the UK, the company confirmed on Monday night.
The Moorside project, under the NuGen brand, is located near Sellafield in northwest England's Cumbria, and will have a gross capacity of 3.8 gigawatts, enough to power up to six million homes in the UK.
The reactor was originally planned to be a 60:40 joint venture between Japan's Toshiba and France's Engie.
However, ongoing financial trouble at Toshiba has led to concerns about the future of the nuclear project, with Engie selling its stake to Toshiba in April for 139 million US dollars.
The Toshiba Corporation logo at the company's headquarters in Tokyo /VCG Photo
The Toshiba Corporation logo at the company's headquarters in Tokyo /VCG Photo
In July 2015, Toshiba admitted it had overstated its profits for the previous six years, resulting in a record fine from Japanese authorities and its credit rating being reduced to junk. Its money-losing nuclear business in the US, Westinghouse Electric, filed for bankruptcy protection in March.
Other bidders have expressed interest in the Moorside project, including South Korea's Kepco and China's State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation.
CGN to build UK's first nuclear plant in 20 years
A successful bid for NuGen could mean CGN holds stakes in four new nuclear plants in the UK.
CGN owns a 33 percent holding in the Hinkley Point C project in Somerset, a 20 percent stake in a project at Sizewell, Suffolk, and will have 66.5 percent of shares in a plant at Bradwell, Essex.
The Hinkley Point nuclear project is Britain's first nuclear power plant since the Sizewell B power station came online in 1995, and will be co-built by CGN and French state-owned company EDF.
Hinkley Point B nuclear power station, operated by Electricite de France SA's (EDF), near Bridgwater, UK on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015. /VCG Photo
Hinkley Point B nuclear power station, operated by Electricite de France SA's (EDF), near Bridgwater, UK on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015. /VCG Photo
Robert Davis, the COO of General Nuclear International, a UK subsidiary of CGN, said nuclear power will be an increasingly important source of energy for Britain.
"The current nuclear fleet is very old, and will get off-line soon, so it needs to be replaced by Hinkley Point and others," he said, adding that about 29 percent of the UK's generation capacity currently comes from nuclear energy.
In July 2016, British Prime Minister Theresa May delayed granting approval to Hinkley Point C amid security concerns about China's investment. On September 15, the government finally gave the 24-billion-US dollar project the go ahead.
Chinese reactor awaiting UK regulator's approval
CGN plans to install its Hualong Pressurized Reactor 1000 (HPR1000) nuclear reactor at Bradwell, which could be the first nuclear plant in a developed economy to use Chinese reactor technology.
The HPR1000 reactor is currently being reviewed by the UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation, in a process that is expected to take around five years.
UK's nuclear safety regulations require new nuclear power technology, such as China's HPR1000, to go through a Generic Design Assessment (GDA) before construction can begin.
Receiving a green light on HPR1000 from regulators would provide a great boost for Chinese nuclear technology, with companies like CGN eyeing up wider global expansion.
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