CONSULTING

to begin operating in 2024. 829 However, the AP1000 design is not expected to be licensed before
January 2017. 830
Horizon Nuclear was bought by Hitachi from E.ON and RWE for an estimated price of £700 million
(US$1.2 billion). The company has submitted its ABWR for technical review, whilst making it clear
that its continuation in the project will depend on the outcome of the EDF negotiations with the
Government. 831 The ABWR, planned for the Wylfa site, has passed the justification procedure at
both Houses of Parliament in January 2015, the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) is even less
advanced than that of the AP1000 and expected to be completed sometime by December 2017. 832
If everything did go according to plan, the reactor would start up in 2025. 833
The constant decline in energy and electricity consumption in the U.K. does not favor the economic
case for nuclear new-build. Annual final electricity consumption in 2015 was little different to that
in 2014 (0.2 percent higher), the lowest consumption level in 17 years. How the U.K. Brexit
decision will influence the prospects for nuclear new-build is highly uncertain, even if
representatives of all U.K. projects were quick to ascertain that there would be no impact on their
plans.
Meanwhile, renewables’ share of electricity generation increased from 19.1 percent in 2014 to
24.7 percent in 2015, 834 overtaking nuclear generation, and British renewable projects continue
to demonstrate robustly lower market prices than the price guaranteed for 35 years to the largely
French-state-owned owners of Hinkley Point C—a disparity bound to create increasing political
tensions in the U.K.
Switzerland is the only non-EU Western European country that operates nuclear power
plants. It operates five reactors that, in 2015, generated 22.1 TWh—a drop of 16.3 percent over
the previous year—or 33.5 percent of the country’s electricity, down from a maximum of
44.4 percent in 1996. The decline of the power generation is due to increased outage times,
829 NucNet, “Toshiba Finalises Controlling Stake in UK Nuclear Company NuGen”, 30 June 2014, see
http://www.nucnet.org/all-the-news/2014/06/30/toshiba-finalises-controlling-stake-in-uk-nuclear-companynugen,
accessed 18 June 2016.
830 ONR, “Assessing new nuclear reactor designs—Generic Design Assessment Quarterly Report
(November 2015-January 2016)”, undated, see http://www.onr.org.uk/new-reactors/reports/gda-quarterlyreport-nov15-jan16.pdf,
accessed 11 May 2016.
831 Telegraph, “Hitachi reluctant about UK nuclear reactor plan”, 14 April 2013, see
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/9993564/Hitachi-reluctant-about-UK-nuclearreactor-plan.html,
accessed 2 July 2016.
832 ONR, “Assessing new nuclear reactor designs—Generic Design Assessment Progress Report,
November 2015 to January 2016”, see http://www.onr.org.uk/new-reactors/reports/gda-quarterly-reportnov15-jan16.pdf,
accessed 2 July 2016.
833 WNN, “Horizon clears justification hurdle”, 28 January 2015, see http://www.world-nuclearnews.org/NN-Horizon-clears-justification-hurdle-2801151.html,
accessed 2 July 2016.
834 DECC, “Statistics – Energy trends—Section 5 – Electricity”, June 2016, see
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/511931/Electricity.pdf,
accessed 2 July 2016.
Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al. 196 World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2016