French utility to announce China deal

The Hinkley Point project is Britain’s first nuclear plant in three decades and the most expensive atomic energy station ever. The decision may be made public as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday, when Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to visit the United Kingdom, Mr. Levy said.

“If everything goes well, we may announce a major event, the first construction of a nuclear power plant in Europe since Fukushima”, EDF Chief Executive Jean-Bernard Levy said in an interview with French radio Europe1.

Levy also said he expected EDF would finalise its agreement to buy 51-per cent of Areva’s reactor unit Areva NP by the end of next year.

Hinkley Point is planned to feature the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), a third-generation reactor design which is claimed to be the safest and most advanced in the world.

The Chinese companies are expected to largely finance and get a stake of around 40 per cent in the nuclear plant that authorities hope will generate seven per cent of Britain’s electricity.

A GCHQ spokesman said: “GCHQ has a remit to support the cyber-security of private sector-owned critical national infrastructure projects, including in the civil nuclear sector and nuclear new builds, when invited to do so by the lead government department involved”.

Outside the site, anti-nuclear protesters have written banners in Chinese and say they want to send a message to the Chinese that Hinkley C would be “a bad investment”.

The United Kingdom government guaranteed EDF and its Chinese partners an electricity price of GBP92.50 a megawatt hour, around twice the current wholesale power price, for 35 years for the first reactor when it is up and running.

That’s competitive with new-build gas and renewable projects, and will give it a rate of return of 10%, according to the company.

EDF’s United Kingdom unit will shoulder all the construction costs associated with building Hinkley Point C and no costs will fall on the tax payer, it said on Friday.

The decision could hinge on China’s role in the consortium through its state-run firms China General Nuclear Corporation (CGN) and China National Nuclear Corporation.

Last month, George Osborne announced fresh investment from China, which brings the assembly of the plant one step closer. So far as Chinese participant in the Hinkley Point power station is concerned, let me be very clear that this is financial investment.