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.

Hinkley C is scheduled as the first in a new generation of eight nuclear reactors needed as part of the energy mix to meet the UK’s energy needs.
The ten-year construction phase alone would generate 25,000 jobs, but the project has been dogged by delays. It was once said that Britons would be cooking their Christmas turkeys with Hinkley C-generated power in 2017.
The FT says the EDF board is split over the decision.

The French firm’s original partner in the project, Centrica, pulled out three years ago citing rising costs, and delays. EDF found a new Chinese investor, and that deal was announced in a blaze of publicity last October during the Chinese President’s State visit to the UK.

The Chinese will take a one third stake, with EDF being responsible for the rest. The total cost of Hinkley C is more than the value of the company, and French unions have expressed concern.

In 2015 Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced a £2billion guarantee for Hinkley C, as the government sought to pave the way for construction.

Ironically Lord Howell is Mr Osborne’s father-in-law.

Asked on the ‘Today’ programme whether Hinkley C will go ahead Lord Howell said: “It’s a big ‘if’ and it’s getting more ‘iffy’ and I see this morning they are still wondering about how to raise the finance for it, and the reason is that it is a gigantic, a dinosaur of a model. There is no other model like it working in the world.

“The one they built in Finland is years behind and well over budget. This is probably the wrong design. It’s the last battleship, an old-fashioned system.”

He said it would be better to wait until the 2020s or 2030s for nuclear development in this country, adding: “It will be smaller, cheaper, safer and solving all sorts of technology problems, but this is a great lumping pyramid from the past.

“I have been very doubtful all along whether it will take off. I don’t know the answer now but it’s looking very iffy indeed.”

EDF Chief Executive Officer Vincent de Rivaz has said: “Our project is based on proven technology. Britain is buying the best and the safest.

“The EPR is a Pressurised Water Reactor with the highest safety standards that society rightly demands. We run 58 PWRs in France and there are 277 around the world.

“Thanks to the visionary investment made 40 years ago France now has among the cheapest electricity in Europe. Hinkley Point C will be the fifth and sixth EPRs worldwide.

“It is true that there have been delays at Flamanville. The experience gained there – and at Taishan in China – will be immensely valuable when we come to Hinkley Point C. And for the UK we have a design which is stable: We are sure of what we will build before we begin construction.

It was approved by the UK regulator following a four-year year assessment which included 850,000 hours of engineering studies. The EPR is the only new generation reactor design which has completed this process.

“Hinkley Point C is the first of its kind in the UK. It won’t be the last. It will be followed by the two EPRs we plan to build at Sizewell C.

“Our experience will ensure that this technology – which has been through a teething and somewhat challenging period – will mature to deliver its full potential for the UK and around the world.”