The NuGen consortium which is developing Moorside is jointly owned by Toshiba and Engie. Toshiba announced on Friday it was reviewing its nuclear activities in response to a financial crisis, leaving a question mark over the future of the project.
“This is an anxiety but it’s one to which there is a solution, albeit probably at the cost of a little bit of time,” said Tim Yeo, who chaired the Energy and Climate Change Committee from 2010-2015 and is now chairman of the trade group New Nuclear Watch Europe. “I think what it will throw up is the possibility of bringing a new partner into the NuGen consortium”, he added.
South Korean utility Kepco was reported to be close to investing in the project in October, and in December the Times reported that representatives from the company had met with business and energy secretary Greg Clark.
“They’ve been a bit discouraged, I think, by the reception they’ve had in the UK,” said Yeo. “But my understanding is they are now talking to Toshiba about taking a stake… I think there’s no doubt that Kepco, with the full backing of the Korean government, is interested.”
He said Kepco’s involvement could delay the project if it insisted on using its own reactor technology as it would have to go through the lengthy Generic Design Assessment process. “That would set the programme back a bit,” he added.
“Going forward, we will revise the positioning of the nuclear business as our main focus business in the energy sector, and review the future of nuclear businesses outside Japan”, said Toshiba president and chief executive Satoshi Tsunakawa at a press conference on Friday.
The Japanese conglomerate is facing an undisclosed write-down amounting to “several billion US dollars” on the purchase of US nuclear construction firm CB&I Stone & Webster by its subsidiary Westinghouse. The plans for Moorside feature three AP1000 reactors supplied by Westinghouse with a combined capacity of 3.4GW.
Yeo said it is a “concern” that Toshiba is “obviously struggling to make any money from its nuclear activities”. However, he denied that the group’s financial meltdown is reflective of the nuclear industry as a whole.
He said there are “plausible explanations” as to why a number of nuclear firms have faced financial difficulties in recent years. “In the case of the EPR, the EDF project, those are associated, in my view, with the fact that it’s a first of a kind technology. The history of the nuclear industry over the last 50 years shows that first of a kind projects more often than not run into timetable and cost overruns.”
Earlier this month it was reported that Toshiba was seeking public financing for Moorside.