PARIS (Reuters) – EDF plans to revise its cost estimates and timetable for Britain’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant project soon due to the Ukrainian conflict, COVID-19, power line disruptions supply and inflation.
“A new comprehensive review aimed at updating the cost and schedule estimates announced in January 2021 is underway and should be finalized by the summer”, specifies EDF in its annual report.
The French power supplier last updated its construction schedule in January 2021. It then reported a six-month delay to the opening of its first UK nuclear power plant and revised the cost of the project up by 500 million pounds (595.84 million euros), for a total of between 22 and 23 billion pounds.
The opening of the plant was initially planned for 2025 at a cost then estimated at 18 billion pounds.
Other similar projects in Flamanville, France, and Olkiluoto, Finland have also been delayed and have seen their bills skyrocket.
Among the factors that affected these projects, EDF cites the lingering impact of the health crisis, weaker than expected civil engineering performance, tensions in global construction materials markets as well as the repercussions of Brexit. Offshore works have also been slowed due to delays in obtaining permits.
Action plans are underway to mitigate the risk of delays and actions are being taken to improve the performance of civil engineering, specifies EDF.
(Report by GV De Clercq; French version Dina Kartit, edited by Jean-Michel Bélot)
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