Political problems with China’s involvement in building UK’s nuclear reactors

any Chinese involvement in EDF’s new nuclear plans would raise concerns on a number of fronts and could even require a direct UK government involvement through some kind of golden share.

China could take key role in UK nuclear infrastructure through Hinkley Point
• EDF in talks with China to share £10bn reactor costs
• French company’s debt levels rocket to £30bn
• Security concerns raise possibility of government taking ‘golden
share’ in development Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk, 2 September 2012 EDF has been holding talks with China about sharing the soaring cost of building £10bn worth of new reactors at Hinkley Point, Somerset.

The move underlines growing pressure on the French company’s internal finances and has reignited a fractious debate about Communist state-run businesses playing a critical role in sensitive western energy infrastructure.

The overtures to Beijing’s state corporations – as well as approaches to Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds – come as EDF faces growing investment demands in France and the UK that have sent debt levels rocketing to €39.7bn (£30bn)……
While EDF would not publicly confirm it, well-placed industry sources
say the group, which has a 20% partner in Centrica already, has been
in discussions with China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation
(SNPTC) and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC). These
are the rival state-owned companies that have already teamed up with
two Western consortiums vying to buy the Horizon Nuclear Power company
from RWE and E.ON. Horizon owns sites at Wylfa, on Anglesey, and
Oldbury, South Gloucestershire.

SNPTC is in a bidding team with Areva, the French engineering company
that is already working with EDF in Somerset, while talks have already
been held by Chinese officials with the UK’s Department of Energy and
Climate Change about independently developing other nuclear sites in
Britain such as Hartlepool in the north-east of England.

Mark Pritchard, a Conservative MP and member of the parliamentary
joint national security committee, said any Chinese involvement in EDF’s new nuclear plans would raise concerns on a number of fronts and could even require a direct UK government involvement through some kind of golden share.

“If there is significant Chinese financing, then the coalition
government should consider retaining a controlling stake,” he said.
“There would also need to be national security safeguards over any
Chinese design and build.”

“Restrictions should also apply as to the number of Chinese workers
who could work on UK-based nuclear projects…….
Nick Butler, a former energy adviser to Number 10, has earlier raised
concerns about Chinese involvement in any potential Horizon bids. In a
recent FT blog, he wrote: “They will be inside the system, with access
to the intricate architecture of the UK’s National Grid and the
processes through which electricity supply is controlled, as well as
to the UK’s nuclear technology.”

Meanwhile, EDF last month revealed its debt levels had jumped nearly
20% in the first half of the year, partly because of €10bn in new
spending commitments demanded by the French government on local
reactors in the aftermath of the Fukushima atomic crisis in March last
year.

The energy company – majority owned by the French state – is also
facing mounting cost overruns and delays on its planned new reactor
scheme at Flamanville in northern France.

A final green light for Hinkley Point C depends on receiving an
acceptable “strike price”, agreed with the government, that would
guarantee future returns….
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/02/edf-china-nuclear-reactor?newsfeed=true