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France’s state auditor has said that French nuclear company EDF should not make a final investment decision in the UK’s Sizewell C reactor project until it has reduced its exposure to its other British development, Hinkley Point C.
The Cour des comptes also said state-owned EDF must ensure that any international projects are profitable, and must not delay the programme of new nuclear projects in France.
The auditors’ comments on Tuesday came just hours after the Financial Times reported that the construction cost of the Sizewell C project in Suffolk was likely to reach £40bn, double the estimate in 2020.
The new figure reflects surging construction costs as well as implications of delays and cost overruns at the sister site Hinkley in Somerset.
Delaying a final investment decision from EDF could further hold back the project and lead to costs rising even further.
The UK government and EDF, the initial backers of Sizewell C, have been trying to raise billions of pounds from new investors, with a final investment decision now delayed until at least spring.
Asked about the FT report, Cour de Comptes said that the increase appeared “logical” given cost overruns at other such projects.
The Cour des comptes also recommended that any final investment decisions for EPR2 programmes — the technology on which Hinkley Point C and other new reactors are based — should be held back until financing has been secured, and detailed studies have been carried out to assess the projects.
This could lead to a more cautious approach from EDF towards six further EPR2 reactors in France, which were announced by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2022. Cour des comptes estimated the bill for these plants to be almost €80bn.
The Cour des comptes also criticised the long-delayed Flamanville project in northern France, which recently started providing electricity to the grid, 12 years behind schedule.
Cour des comptes president Pierre Moscovici said that it forecasts a “mediocre profitability” for the project with the data it has available, adding that EDF had refused to provide it with information about the profitability of the plant. It forecast the energy group would never recover its capital investment.
The concerns come as France has pledged to build an additional six new reactors domestically in the coming decades to meet its electricity needs — an ambitious and costly goal that critics say will be near impossible to meet.
In the UK, questions over the future of Sizewell will add to concerns about the British government’s strategy for a nuclear power revival, which is intended to generate a consistent “baseload” as the electricity system shifts to a much higher dependence on intermittent renewable energy.
The first new power station was meant to be Hinkley Point C, which was originally envisaged to be finished by 2017, but was later pushed back to 2025.
Early last year EDF admitted that the Somerset scheme would not be completed until at least 2029, with the cost jumping to as much as £46bn.
The French company then blamed the latest problems on the complexity of installing electromechanical systems and intricate piping.
EDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Cour des comptes report.
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