Ministers have just four to five weeks to make a decision on keeping Hinkley Point B running beyond its decommissioning date, nuclear industry insiders have said.
As revealed by i, the Government is looking at delaying the decommissioning of the country’s existing nuclear reactors in a bid to help keep soaring energy prices down.
The Hinkley Point B reactor is due to be taken off-grid in July, but i understands that talks could be imminent to keep the Somerset station going in a bid to provide a cheaper and more secure energy supply over the next year or so.
The likelihood of reactors, such as Heysham 1 in Morecambe and Hartlepool, both of which are due to be shut down in 2024, continuing beyond their decommissioning dates is even stronger, the paper has been told.
According to sources within the industry, the French energy giant EDF, which owns and operates Hinkley Point, is waiting to be told by the Government to carry out an inspection and apply to the regulator to extend the life of the reactor.
One source said: “The fact that EDF has not already turned around and said it can’t be done, suggests they are open to the idea, it is just whether the Government approaches them to.”
A failure to do so would mean the country losing around 1GW of electricity by next year, or just under 1m homes.
Tory MP Ian Liddell-Grainger, who is chair of the all-party parliamentary group on nuclear and whose constituency Hinkley Point sits, said it would be “madness to shut down any power station at a time when so much uncertainty is clouding the energy market”.
He added: “Even if it can only be run at reduced output Hinkley Point B has the potential to continue making a significant contribution to our electricity needs for a few more years yet.
“The decision to take it out of commission was made under an entirely different set of circumstances and now needs to be urgently reviewed.”
Experts believe Hinkley Point B could keep going despite concerns from officials within the Department for Business, Energy, Innovation and Science that the graphite blocks in its core are showing signs of deterioration.
But those in the industry believe that the deterioration of the graphite is minor and would only have a potential impact on the cooling of the reactor in the event of a one in 10,000 year earthquake in the British Isles.
The potential to keep the reactor going is possible in large part because of the sky-high costs of wholesale gas, which has rocketed as a result of the end of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
“With wholesale gas prices as high as they are, suddenly the idea of shutting down a reactor, inspecting it, having the regulator check it complies with safety regulations and turning back on again becomes viable in a way it never would before,” the source said.
