Hinkley Point: endless setbacks at nuclear plant highlight political choice to destroy EDF
On January 22nd, state-owned French utilities group EDF announced new delays in the construction of two EPR nuclear reactors at the British plant of Hinkley Point. Originally planned to enter service in 2024, the first of the two reactors is now expected to be, at best, operational in 2029, or possibly “2030 or 2031”, while costs have soared above initial estimates. Seven years after the project was launched, all the warnings against EDF’s involvement in it made by the group’s staff have proved be right, writes Mediapart economics correspondent Martine Orange in this op-ed article. The state-owned group now finds itself in a fatal trap created by Emmanuel Macron.
FollowingFollowing the epic delays with the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant in Finland, those of Flamanville in France, and those of Taishan in China, the under-construction plant of Hinkley Point C in south-west England has now joined the long story of an industrial catastrophe which is the third generation EPR (pressurised water reactor) first designed by Areva, once France’s nuclear energy giant.
