Brexit could halt Hinkley Point

EDF has insisted that the Brexit decision will have no impact on the project’s continuation

The future of Hinkley Point C has been called into question following the decision for the UK to leave the EU.

While the ongoing plans to build the £18 billion nuclear plant in Somerset have been subject to delays and spiralling costs, EDF has insisted that the Brexit decision will have no impact on the project’s continuation. 

However, Dr Paul Dorfman, government adviser and senior research fellow at the Energy Institute, University College London, has called this into question, stating that French reactor developer Areva is “essentially bankrupt” because of cost and build overruns with the EPR reactors and problems with operating plants. 

Dorfman said: “EDF are also facing dire problems and tens of billions of pounds of nuclear plant safety upgrades. 

“The last thing the French want, politically or economically, is to throw money they don’t have into UK projects given the fact that it is no longer part of the EU. Brexit has thrown a huge amount of uncertainty on the UK energy market. The French government or EDF will not want to spend millions on Hinkley at a time when they need all of their resources to support their own flagging nuclear infrastructure.”