COVID-19的影响和限制预计有望将英国308亿美元的Hinkley Point C核电站项目推迟六个月，并在最近的成本估算中增加了6.8亿美元。自从2016年的Twin-Unit（3,200兆瓦工厂）开始工作以来，这一成本的加息目前接近28％。

“This is the first time we have adjusted our schedule since the project commenced construction,” Stuart Crooks, managing director of project owner-developer Hinkley Point C Ltd., said in a video broadcast. The company is led by French state-controlled energy firm EdF Group.

When the pandemic reached the U.K. early last year, the company postponed some work to create safe working spaces while mobilizing extra resources to catch up lost time, said Crooks. But “10 months on and it’s clear that the pandemic is still in full force [eating] away at our opportunity to recover lost time from 2020,” he added.

根据约翰·霍普金斯大学的统计数据，英国的人均死亡率现在是世界上最糟糕的，英国自大流行以来的死亡人数已正式报道。

欣克利经理估计，去年损失了三个月，预计该项目今年将损失三个月，“假设条件使我们能够在4月初到4月初加大资源”。

When the project secured government approval in 2016, its cost was put at $24.6 billion. In September 2019, EdF raised that estimate to around $30 billion, at 2015 prices, lifting it now to about $30.7 billion.

尽管大流行，但该项目迄今已达到了20个里程碑中的18个，“最后两个不远，”克鲁克斯说。该公司现在旨在将第一个反应堆圆顶放置在2022年底。