Nuclear building programme faces major delays

The UK’s new nuclear programme could face major delays following the collapse of the sale of British Energy (BE) to French energy giant EDF, civil engineers warned this week.

CECA called on the Government, which is a major shareholder of BE, to get EDF back to the negotiating table. CECA director Joe Johnson said: “There is huge demand for the technology from other countries such as South Africa. There are very few  technology vendors and they could lose faith with the UK and go elsewhere, leaving us to take our place at the back of the queue, unless we speed up the delivery of this programme.”

The UK's nuclear regulatory body is currently considering three designs from technology vendors EPR (Areva), ESBWR (General Electric) and AP1000 (Westinghouse).

EDF’s £12bn bid was rejected by BE’s board yesterday (Thursday). Two major BE shareholders are understood to have vetoed the bid, arguing rising fuel prices made EDF’s bid poor value.

British Energy operates eight nuclear power stations. Its sale is at the heart of the Government’s new nuclear programme. EDF had planned to build four new nuclear power stations on British Energy sites.

“This could be brinkmanship but if it isn’t then it could seriously delay the whole programme,” Johnson added.