Nuclear - future for Ireland?

Oh, maybe because our laws (including company law and tax laws, torts, civil law etc. ) and civil service are based on theirs. We use most of their large construction and consultancy companies too. So it's by far the closest framework.

They have a 70 year head start on us in commercial nuclear power plant construction, operation and waste handling.

They have a head start on decommissioning and reprocessing.

They have multiple pre-existing sites to choose from.

They have an electricity market an order of magnitude larger than ours and have a plan to acquire a series of nuclear plants and so could benefit from both loss-leaders and volume discounts which would never be given to us.

Unlike ours their defence forces need nuclear materials for weapons (including depleted uranium) and submarine reactors so nuclear power can be subsided from the defence budget.

The UK looked everywhere before signing with EDF for Hinkley C , the list of companies that walked away or went bankrupt since the tenders started is impressive.

Unless and until you can explain in detail how we could beat the UK on every single one of these points there's a snowball's chance in hell we could get nuclear power cheaper than the UK could.

In the end the UK needed the French and Chinese government to provide financial guarantees. The Chinese government are not the sort of people you want to owe the smallest amount of money to if you can't pay because you will get screwed (cf. the number of military bases ports they have acquired, including one in Greece) and the UK government is in hoc to eye-watering amounts.

Meanwhile the UK didn't buy into Rolls Royce's SMR even though they were offered at a fraction of the price of Hinkley-C and promised thousands of job , instead they continued to import 4 GW of renewables from France.

At this point Hinkley's fixed price contact looks like it'll extend until 50 years after generation was supposed to start. Any number of solar or storage innovations will happen over that course of time.

For example a roll of self adhesive flexible thin film solar would use a tiny fraction of the material currently used for cells (saving > 99% of silicon) and no support needed (saving 99% of aluminium and glass) Today's improvements in overlapping cells and higher voltages are already reducing the usage of silver and copper.

IIRC for ORESS the clock starts from when generation was supposed to start, not from when it actually does.

€86.05/MWh (2023) = £72.52 (2023) = £52.69 (2012)

"Even looking at Ireland the last ORESS average weighted strike price of €86.05 is greater than Hinkley. "

Czechia's seemingly anti-renewables ODS (Civic Democratic Party) party has arranged that the country will be entering contract negotiations with KHNP for two APR1000 reactors 1055 MW at an existing nuclear site. Cost has been rounded to CZK 200 billion per unit.

The tender procedure was launched on 17 March 2022. Initial bids from
EDF, KHNP and WEC (for one unit at Dukovany with a non-binding option
for three more units – EDU6 and ETE 3 + 4) were received by 30 November
2022. The amended bids were submitted by the bidders as of 31 October
2023. In January 2024, the government decided to invite two bidders (EDF
and KHNP) to complete updated bids for a binding option to build up to
three additional nuclear units (EDU 6 and ETE 3+4). The contacted
bidders submitted them by 30 April 2024. EDU II submitted the evaluation
report to the Ministry of Industry and Trade on 14 June 2024 as a basis
for the final government decision on the preferred bidder.

Negotiations with the preferred contractor will now follow, among
other things, on the option for more units, but also on the involvement
of Czech industry. The contract with the contractor will be signed in
the first quarter of next year. It is planned to secure a building
permit by 2029 and start trial operation by the end of 2036, with
commercial operation starting in 2038. Adherence to the construction
schedule is subject to contractual penalties.

From tender to power is minimum 16 years. On a site that already has nuclear power.

Price is $8.65 billion per GW. On a site that already has nuclear power. And negotiations will go on for another year. ( pro rate cost for the 3.2 GW of Hinkley C would be €27.68 Bn )

Fun fact this project has already had three years added since January. Was 2035 now 2038.

"Westinghouse did not fulfill the required [tender] conditions," the government said in a statement without giving further details. " … Construction work on the first new Dukovany reactor was expected under the initial tender to start in 2029, with the reactor being ready for operation in 2035.

And it needs state aid

The whole project is a political decision and Westinghouse are suing KHNP over rector technology.

EU regulations now insist that a deep radioactive waste repository (DWR) must be built by 2050 in order for new nuclear energy projects to qualify as sustainable investments. - You also need to add in the decommissioning costs.