The board of EDF remains deeply split over whether to proceed with the nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset, with nearly half its members expected to vote against the giant project, according to French nuclear experts. The French state-owned energy group, which is grappling with debts of €37 billion and plunging wholesale electricity prices, delayed a key board meeting last Wednesday under growing pressure from French energy unions to abandon the project because of the huge costs and financial risks involved. Mycle Schneider, a Paris-based nuclear energy expert, said that the situation was very serious, adding: “The indications are that the unions, who have six board seats, would have voted against it and at least one more member. Maybe more.” Although the executive team of EDF, including Jean-Bernard Lévy, the chairman, is strongly backing the project with government approval, they are facing stiff opposition from other powerful industry figures. Upheaval within the French nuclear industry is complicating efforts to finalise the Hinkley project, which EDF intends to build with two state-controlled Chinese nuclear companies, according to a deal agreed in October last year during a visit to the UK by President Xi. The two companies also plan to build two more EPR reactors at Sizewell in Suffolk. Mr Atherton said: “Financing such a massive project will place a significant strain on EDF’s finances. That is why they have brought in Chinese investors.” However, he said that the project could still prove highly profitable to EDF in the long term because of the attractive subsidies offered by the UK, including a guaranteed “strike price” for Hinkley’s electricity of £92.50 a megawatt hour, nearly three times the present wholesale cost of power.
Times 1st Feb 2016 read more »
The industry minister Anna Soubry will find herself at the centre of a row this week over her suggestions that UK steel suppliers are not capable of producing key components for the £18 billion Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. Ms Soubry is to be called back to the Commons’ business select committee to be questioned over the accuracy of claims which the committee chairman has called “disturbing, sweeping and dismissive”. In a written response to MPs’ questions over why companies such as Sheffield Forgemasters had been frozen out of contracts for the French-built Hinkley Point C, the minister said: “It is widely understood and accepted in the nuclear and steel industries that the UK does not have this capacity.”
Times 1st Feb 2016 read more »