The French energy minister, Ségolène Royal, has said that a postponement of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power project was still under discussion.

In a French television interview on Thursday, she was asked whether Hinkley Point would be postponed.

“It’s still under discussion,” Royal replied. “There’s an agreement between France and Britain, so things should go ahead. But the trade unions are right to ask for the stakes to be re-examined.”

Asked if she was in favour of a postponement, Royal ducked the question and said she would not make rash comments.

However, the minister added that while she did not want to “decisively throw the project into question just like that”, there should be “further proof” that the £18bn venture was “well-founded” and would not affect investment in renewable energy.

Scrapping Hinkley for renewable alternatives would save ‘tens of billions’
EDF, the energy company controlled by the French government, has still not made a firm commitment to build the new nuclear power station. Its board is expected to make a final decision on the project at its next meeting on 11 May.

Last week an EDF board member called for Hinkley Point C to be postponed, in the latest sign of discord at the top of the French energy company over the troubled project.

Christian Taxil, an employee director, said a raft of changes to the Somerset reactor scheme agreed over the past three years significantly raised the risk for EDF.

The dissent follows weeks of behind the scenes bickering and the resignation last month of EDF finance director, Thomas Piquemal, despite continual promises from EDF chief executive Jean-Bernard Lévy that the controversial project will go ahead.

EDF has been hit by falling power prices, cost overruns on other projects, and demands to upgrade French nuclear reactors to make them safer. Its Paris-listed shares are down by almost 60% over the past 12 months.

The company is being compelled by the French government to buy the reactors division of Areva, which is also state-controlled.

Areva’s European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) technology is slated to be used at Hinkley Point. However, the first power station to use it – which is being built in Finland – is running nine years behind schedule due to problems and cost overruns. The problems had left Areva virtually bankrupt after four years of losses.

Concerns about the EPR technology has also delayed EDF’s construction of another EPR reactor at Flamanville, on France’s west coast. Its budget has gone from €3bn to €10.5bn and it is running six years late.

Building two new nuclear reactors at Hinkley has been heavily backed by the UK government in order to keep the lights on in Britain. The last of the UK’s coal-fired power stations will be closed in 2025.

Simon Taylor, a specialist in nuclear financing and a lecturer at Cambridge University, said last month that the Hinkley project appeared to be “poor value for money” and it would be best if the French government abandoned it.