Investment in Hinkley Point C should be held until 2019 so problems with a similar reactor design in France are solved, the CFE-CGC Energy Union said. It comes after French firm EDF Energy agreed a deal in principle last year, to invest in the Somerset site. Unions occupy six of the 18 seats on the board of EDF, which is yet to vote on a final investment decision. The £18bn project has been plagued by delays, but publicly the firm has insisted a decision to move forward is imminent. There are many who say that too much has been invested for Hinkley not to happen now. But in France, it seems there are influential voices now trying to derail the new nuclear train.
BBC 1st March 2016 read more »
French nuclear parastatal EDF is facing problem after problem – zombie nuclear projects in the UK, Finland, China and France, a fleet of ‘beyond the grave’ reactors, a dropping share price and its drooping credit rating. But is it really as bad as all that? Jonathon Porritt has exclusive access to the leaked Agenda of its latest board meeting. And the answer is – no. It’s even worse. “Regrettably, our cohort of ‘green ambassadors’ (led by renowned UK environmentalist George Monbiot) has fallen silent. Even the FT has now joined the critics, stating ‘Politically painful it may be, but the case for halting Hinkley Point C is becoming hard to refute’.” EDF’s meltdown at Hinkley Point is already having a significant knock-on impact on other would-be nuclear prospects in the UK – with Horizon, NuGen and even China General Nuclear Corporation beginning to get cold feet. If Hinkley Point does go down the pan, a project that has been given every conceivable financial inducement by both the UK and the French Government, who the hell is going to invest in different but equally dodgy reactor designs?
Ecologist 29th Feb 2016 read more »
Jonathon Porritt 25th Feb 2016 read more »
A final investment decision on the long-awaited Hinkley C nuclear power plant in Somerset could be delayed another year it has been claimed, as a former Energy Secretary dubbed the design a “dinosaur”. Lord David Howell, Energy Secretary under Mrs Thatcher, and a Foreign Office Minister in the early years of the Coalition Government, said the liklihood of French state-owned developer EDF giving final approval to the project is “very iffy indeed.” Last month EDF said: “final steps are well in hand to enable the full construction phase to be launched very soon.” Lord Howell was speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme today, hours after the Financial Times reported that a final decision on the £18bn project could be delayed by up to a year.
Western Daily Press 29th Feb 2016 read more »
Public Meeting: The Anniversary Legacies: 30 years since Chernobyl; 5 years since Fukushima.
Blue and Green Tomorrow 29th Feb 2016 read more »
This is the West Country 29th Feb 2016 read more »
Burnham & Highbridge Weekly News 29th Feb 2016 read more »