Areva of France and Toshiba of Japan will learn in the next six months which has won the competition to work on one of the biggest nuclear projects, worth up to ￡20bn ($32.4bn).
German energy groups RWE and Eon expect to decide in the spring whether to choose French or US-Japanese technology to build from four to six reactors in the UK, which is planning the biggest expansion of nuclear power in Europe.
Jürgen Grossmann, RWE chief executive, told the FT the two companies were weighing the competing offers. “We want to build the most economical reactor, in the best interest of our customers, and it’s not only the initial investment, ie the purchase price from the manufacturer. It’s the operating costs, with spare parts and all that. So it’s a complex decision.”
Horizon Nuclear Power, the RWE/Eon joint venture, plans to build about 6,000 megawatts of nuclear generation on two sites, one at Wylfa in north-west Wales and one at Oldbury in south-west England, for a total investment of ￡15bn-￡20bn.
The contract appeals because many nuclear projects in other countries are looking shaky as a result of political opposition or financial snags.
In the US, there are proposals for 30 reactors, but industry executives say at most a handful will start construction in the next few years.
The UK government has made a strong commitment to new nuclear plants to safeguard power supplies and cut carbon dioxide emissions, and the Conservative party is expected to take a similar view should it win next year’s election.
Two reactors are being assessed for approval by UK regulators: Areva’s EPR, a design under construction in Finland and France; and the AP1,000 from Westinghouse, Toshiba’s nuclear engineering subsidiary.
Horizon expects to decide in the spring whether to choose the EPR or the AP1,000, or a mixture of the two. It is looking to take a final investment decision on the project in 2013.
Mr Grossman said using both reactors might offer the best deal, but “a lot can be said for going for one technology, which means you have one training ground [and] a crew that can operate various plants”.
The UK government had favoured using more than one technology, but industry executives believe it has dropped that aspiration.
EDF of France, the other leading company planning nuclear investment in the UK, is committed to the EPR.
Robert Davies, Areva’s UK new-build director, said: “We are in close discussions with Horizon Nuclear Power and look forward to a decision in 2010.”
Westinghouse said it was “planning for success” and working to build a supply chain in the UK.
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