Inside NIRMA Spring 2021

Nuclear Must Be Part of
Taxonomy, says Unions, HPC
Delayed Over COVID-19
Nuclear energy must be part of
the European taxonomy within the
action plan on financing sustainable
growth, unions from Belgium,
Bulgaria, Finland, France, Hungary
and Romania said in a joint letter to
the President of the European
Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
“Convinced that Nuclear
Energy is essential for achieving
Europe's climate goals, our
organizations insist on the
imperative to include Nuclear
Energy in European taxonomy.
This taxonomy should provide
reliable information on activities
and technologies contributing to
sustainable goals,” the unions said
in the letter.
The EU taxonomy is a
classification system to clearly
define and establish a list of
environmentally sustainable
economic activities which investors
can use when considering financing
projects.
“The EU taxonomy is an
important enabler to scale up
sustainable investment and to
implement the European Green
Deal,” the European Commission
says.
A Commission has left nuclear
power from its recommendations
on the taxonomy rules as it said it
could not conclude that the
industry’s value chain does not
cause significant harm to other
environmental objectives.
Hinkley Point C start up
delayed 6 mths due to
Covid-19
The startup for EDF’s Hinkley
Point C nuclear power station, two
EPR reactors with a combined
capacity of 3.2 GW in construction
in Somerset, UK, will be around six
months later than originally planned
and will cost an extra £500 million
($687 million) due to COVID-19
pandemic, the company said in a
statement at the end of January.
EDF, a French state-run utility,
has come under fire for repeated
project delays and cost over runs at
the site, which will house Britain’s
first EPR reactor when it begins
operation, with its first unit
expected to start electricity
generation in June 2026.
That date compares to the
original date of end-2025 as
announced in 2016.
The project completion costs
are now estimated in the range of
£22 to £23 billion compared to
£21.5 to £22.5 billion announced in
EU flag outside the European
headquarters in Brussels
a press release September 25, 2019,
EDF said.
“The risk of COD (Commercial
Operation Date) delay of Units 1
and 2 is maintained at respectively
15 and 9 months. The realisation of
this risk would incur a potential
additional cost in the order of £0.7
bn. In this case, the IRR (internal
rate of return) for EDF would be
reduced by 0.3%,” EDF said.
European Parliament
calls for suspension of
Belarus NPP
A European Parliament
committee has called for the
suspension of operations at the
Astravets Nuclear Power Plant in
the Grodno Region in Belarus until
all EU safety recommendations
have been implemented.
Article reprinted with permission of
Reuters Events Nuclear.
Read full article here.
26 Spring 2021 NIRMA.org Inside NIRMA