French power company EDF has announced a third round of public consultation for the Sizewell C nuclear reactor project in Suffolk (United Kingdom). The consultation is slated to begin in January 2019 and EDF hopes to submit a planning application for the reactor in 2020 and start construction at the end of 2021.
The Sizewell C project will be almost identical to the Hinkley Point C power station that is being constructed by EDF and its Chinese partner China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN). EDF estimates that it would be a follow-on project to the Hinkley Point C project in Somerset (UK) and expects 20% in capital cost saving for Sizewell C if it manages to reuse the Hinkley Point C experience.
Sizewell C would made up of two European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) units and be built on the existing Sizewell nuclear power plant. Sizewell A houses two 210 MWe Magnox gas-cooled reactors that started commercial operation in 1966 and were permanently shut down in December 2006. Sizewell B is a 1,198 MWe pressurised water reactor (PWR) that began operations in 1995 and is due to shut down around 2035.