BBC: U.K. government may be close to greenlighting Sizewell C

November 3, 2020, 3:03PMANS Nuclear Cafe

Artist’s rendering of the Sizewell site, with Sizewell C at right. Image: EDF Energy

A BBC News story from late last week states that the U.K. government “is close to giving the green light” to EDF Energy’s proposed Sizewell C nuclear new build project in Suffolk, adding that details surrounding the project’s financing “are still being hammered out.”

The Sizewell C station, consisting of twin European pressurized reactors (EPRs), would be built next to Sizewell B, a 1,198-MWe pressurized water reactor that began operation in 1995. (The Sizewell site also houses Sizewell A, a 290-MWe Magnox gas-cooled reactor, but that unit was permanently shuttered in 2006.) Sizewell C would be a near copy of the two-unit Hinkley Point C station, currently under construction in Somerset.

Expected to operate for 60 years, the Sizewell C EPRs would generate enough low-carbon power for six million homes and save nine million tons of CO2 for every year of operation, according to EDF. Further, the company estimates that Sizewell C would create 25,000 job opportunities during its 10-year construction period and 900 ongoing skilled jobs once the station is operational.


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