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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Nils Pratley

Sorry, France, you’re on the hook at Hinkley Point

Engineering teams use the world's largest crane - Big Carl - to lift a 245-tonne steel dome on to Hinkley Point C's first reactor building, at the nuclear power station construction site in Bridgwater, Somerset.
Back in 2016, Hinkley Point C in Somerset was meant to cost £18bn; the latest estimate is up to £35bn in equivalent terms and more like £46bn in today’s money. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

In the troubled history of Hinkley Point C, the resignation of Thomas Piquemal in 2016 ranks as a footnote, but he deserves a heroic mention in the week EDF, developer of the nuclear power station in Somerset, announced yet more cost overruns and delays.

Piquemal was the EDF finance director who took the dissenting view in the French boardroom that rushing to sign a contract with the UK government to build Hinkley would be a risk too far for his debt-laden employer. The energy company’s financial future could be put in jeopardy, he was reported to have said.

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