22 Jul (NucNet): State-controlled French utility and nuclear operator EDF has called a meeting of its board of directors next week to make a final investment decision on the construction of two EPR units at Hinkley Point C in the southwest of England. The company said the meeting will be held on Thursday 28 July. The statement said the Hinkley Point C project is “a major element” of the group’s strategy. The two EPRs would strengthen EDF’s presence in Britain, a country where its subsidiary EDF Energy already operates 15 nuclear reactors and is the largest electricity supplier by volume. A decision to go ahead with Hinkley Point C would enable the company to “mobilise its nuclear engineering skills”, the statement said. The first concrete of Unit 1 at Hinkley Point C, scheduled for mid-2019, would coincide with the startup of the Flamanville-3 EPR in northern France, scheduled for the end of 2018. Last month senior managers at EDF told British MPs that a final investment decision on Hinkley Point C should be delayed until problems including the reactor design and “multi-billion litigation” over the Olkiluoto-3 EPR project in Finland have been resolved. In April, EDF said it was delaying the decision while it consulted with trade unions. That non-binding process of consultation with a council of employee representatives, a process required under French law before a company can undertake a major project, ended earlier this month. EDF declared the works council scrutiny at an end because the period set aside for it had expired. However, several of the trade unions represented on the council said as they were unable to give a view on the HInkley Point C project one way or the other.
