Nuclear power plant Hinkley Point C could be delayed into the 2030s and cost billions of pounds more than previously estimated.
Power may not be generated from the plant until 2031, compared to previous estimates of 2027, developer EDF said on Tuesday.
Costs of developing the plant are now expected to reach as much as £35 billion, well above the £26 billion tipped in 2022.
“Inflation, labour and material shortages” have all hit the flagship nuclear project, “on top of Covid and Brexit disruption”, managing director Stuart Crooks told staff in a letter.
Despite Hinkley Point C using similar reactor technology to plants in Europe, some 7,000 substantial design changes needed to be enforced to meet UK regulations, Crooks added, with 35% more steel and 25% more concrete also required.
Somerset-based Hinkley Point C has been under construction since 2016 and is set to provide power to around six million homes for up to 60 years once complete.
However, news of delays and rising costs mark just the latest in a list of blows suffered by the project, with the price estimates sitting around £18 billion in 2016.
EDF’s latest scenario sees the plant being finished between 2029 and 2031, alongside costs sitting between £31 billion and £35 billion based on 2015 prices.
The news comes after the government recently unveiled plans to ramp up the UK's nuclear capacity to provide 25% of the country’s power by 2050.
Hinkley Point C is set to kick off this expansion as the first new nuclear site to open in the UK since the 1990s, with replica plant Sizewell C in Suffolk also being given planning permission last week and an extra £1.3 billion of funding this week.
'Stop Sizewell C' campaigner Alison Downes described both the Somerset and Suffolk projects as an “unmitigated disaster” following Tuesday’s update.
“The government should cancel Sizewell C instead of handing over scarce billions that could be used instead for renewables, energy efficiency or - in this election year - schools and hospitals,” she said.