EDF, which is majority-owned by the French government, announced Piquemal’s resignation on Monday and said he has been replaced by Xavier Girre.
Advertisement
Tensions over plans to build a new nuclear power station in Britain were exposed on Monday after the finance director of project leader EDF quit his job in protest, sending the French company’s shares down over 6 percent.
Thomas Piquemal is believed to have stepped down because of concerns that a final decision on investment for the £18 billion project in Somerset was being made too soon, potentially threatening EDF’s financial position.
Sources told Reuters last month that EDF’s unions – which have six seats on the company’s board – would vote against the project as it stands right now and want EDF to delay the United Kingdom project until it has developed a new and simplified version of the Areva-designed European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) it plans to build in Hinkley Point.
The project has suffered further delays because of problems at two other sites where nuclear stations based on a similar design to Hinkley are being built.
Piquemal is the second EDF executive to step down this year, after the project’s director, Christopher Bakken, left his role in February.
The issue was discussed between UK Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande at their meeting in Amiens, north France last week.
The project was first announced in 2013, and has been delayed several times.
The Hinkley Project is being pushed by the United Kingdom government, which sees nuclear energy as a way to reduce carbon emissions.
The two 1,600-megawatt reactors proposed for Hinkley Point would cost about £18bn ($26bn), with China General Nuclear Power Corp. paying for a third.
Advertisement
RBC Capital Markets’ utilities analyst Martin Young said that on a standalone basis, it might be possible to argue that Hinkley Point C might have economic merit given the generosity of a 35-year CFD at £92.50 index-linked.
