Even though GCHQ are now involved with all aspects of the Hinkley Point project, concerns about vulnerabilities to cyberattacks from foreign nations won’t be easily quashed – especially given that this debate concerns a nuclear power station.
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“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. According to British media reports, both sides will announce an accord to give China a stake in the Hinkley Point C project, Britain’s first nuclear plant in three decades.
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.
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.
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.
The 16 billion pound project to build two Areva-designed EPR reactors was announced in October 2013, but financial problems at Areva and long delays at two EPR reactors under construction in France and Finland delayed the project.
An announcement is expected during his four-day visit confirming Chinese investment in the new power station.
An Energy Department spokesperson said: “Nuclear power is good for the economy and a key part of our low carbon energy mix”. Opponents of the project argue that it supplies electricity at twice the current price, uses technology with unproven reliability, and in the 10 years it will take for the power station to become operational, gas and renewable energy will become cheaper than nuclear energy.
Plans to build two next-generation nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point in southwest England are stalled at the crossroads of ambitions by Britain, China and French electricity giant EDF.
Britain last month pledged 2 billion pounds for the nuclear plant, which it sees as necessary to meet the country’s energy needs as older coal and nuclear plants are retired, and also as oil reserves decline in the North Sea.
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The contract will help secure jobs in the United Kingdom and provide a boost to the UK’s manufacturing sector.
