Western countries ‘too optimistic’ on nuclear projects, warns engineering chief

Western countries mishandle nuclear energy projects by failing to plan and trying to complete them too fast, the head of AtkinsRéalis, the biggest maker of reactors that run on natural uranium, has warned ahead of the first global nuclear summit this week.

“Clients, governments and ourselves as the industry players . . . we all become too optimistic. We have this optimism bias towards being able to deliver faster,” Ian Edwards, chief executive of the Canadian engineering company, told the Financial Times.

“Really we should probably slow things down a little bit, spend more time on the planning phase and get the execution phase [done].”

Nuclear is increasingly viewed as critical to the transition to clean energy, but construction of reactors has historically been plagued by cost overruns and delays, along with fears about safety and concerns over radioactive waste.

Edwards said that nuclear power could “compete well with renewables” given the longevity of nuclear plants. But that would depend on budgets being met and the development of modular reactors — part of the reason for China’s far greater success in fostering nuclear power than western countries.

“Repeatability is really important,” he said. Components for each reactor type should be built to one design, for example, so that they could be rolled out to any site, he added.

AtkinsRéalis produces the only type of reactor that does not require enriched uranium, of which Russia is the biggest exporter. Its CANDU reactors are in demand as western countries seek to reduce their reliance on Russia for energy following the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Nuclear engineering accounts for about 15 per cent of AtkinsRéalis’s business but Edwards said it is the fastest-growing part of the company and takes up half his time. “Demand is probably going to outstrip our ability to provide capacity.”

Among the nuclear projects hit by delays is the UK’s Hinkley Point C, a twin reactor project built by French company EDF that has been delayed until 2029 at the earliest, four years later than planned. Costs have ballooned from £18bn to a projected £46bn.

Another EDF project in France likewise set to use enriched uranium is running 12 years over schedule and at more than four times the original budget. In the US, two reactors in Georgia are set to cost more than double the starting budget of $14bn and will be completed at least five years late.

The west’s sluggish progress on nuclear — which slowed dramatically after the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan in 2011 — contrasts with a rapid rollout of atomic power in China.

Since 1990, China has built 55 nuclear plants. It has 22 under construction and more than 70 in the planning phase, and is building up exports of nuclear technology.

Edwards said that AtkinsRéalis’s CANDU Monark reactor, launched in November, is designed to be made in modules that can be tweaked according to location.

CANDU is the only nuclear reactor type that does not require enriched uranium. This is because it uses heavy water, which contains the deuterium isotope of hydrogen, to control and cool the reactions. Heavy water absorbs fewer neutrons than regular water, leaving more of them free to collide with uranium atoms to trigger the fission reaction that releases atomic energy.

“It’s definitely a sales differentiator . . . in the short term, the energy security issue because of Russian enriched uranium is an issue,” Edwards said.

EU imports of Russian enriched uranium have more than doubled since the invasion of Ukraine, according to analysis by the environmental NGO Bellona. But EU officials have said this is largely down to countries with Soviet-era reactors stockpiling supplies for fear that Russia could cut them off.

Edwards said fears of climate change were fuelling the renewed interest in nuclear power after Fukushima.

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Belgium, which will host the first International Atomic Energy Agency summit in Brussels on Thursday, originally planned to close its two newest reactors in 2025 but signed a deal in December with the operator Engie to extend their life by 10 years.

French President Emmanuel Macron, US climate envoy John Podesta and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will attend the summit. Participants will sign a declaration committing them to greater investment in existing and new nuclear technologies, officials said.

At the UN COP28 climate conference in Dubai in December, 22 countries including Canada, US and the UK signed a pledge to triple nuclear power by 2050.

Additional reporting by Marton Dunai in Budapest

This story has been corrected to reflect that 22 countries pledged to triple nuclear power by 2050, not 2030.

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