nuclear-news

Breaking! EDF ‘in big trouble’ says French nuclear expert

Mr Schneider said that EDF with debts of €39bn (£33.3bn) might not have the cash to put into Hinkley and added: “It’s not certain it will go ahead.

“There are a long list of issues that need to be agreed, not only the strike price. Even if there is an agreement the financing package has to be put together. It’s a very long-term investment of very uncertain levels of realisation.”

The top graph is the reaction to the news and the bottom graph shows you the dire situation over the last year (even with all the “good” news)

Telegraph

8 April 2013

Financial problems facing EDF (Paris: FR0010242511 – news) could force the French energy giant to pull out of the £14bn project to build the first of a new generation of nuclear power plants in Britain, a French expert has warned.

Mycle Schneider, a former energy adviser to the French government, questioned whether EDF could finance the investment.

“EDF is in big trouble. The whole of the nuclear power industry in France is in big trouble,” he said.

His comments, on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, came as David Cameron prepared to raise the nuclear power issue with the president of France, Francios Hollande, during his lightning tour to try to win support for EU reforms.

President Hollande is seen as a pivotal figure because he wants state controlled EDF to curb its nuclear power ambitions and invest heavily in improving safety at plants in France as well as giving a higher priority to renewable energy.

Negotiations on a deal between EDF and the Government over the construction of a massive plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset are deadlocked because the two sides have failed to agree on a price for electricity and a range of other guarantees.

EDF is also trying to find a partner to fill the gap left by Centrica (LSE: CNA.L – news) which has abandoned nuclear power.

Lord Deighton, Treasury Commercial Secretary and former chief executive of the London Olympic organising committee, has been given the task of hammering out an agreement the Government regards as crucial to meet its nuclear power ambitions to reinforce the electricity generating network and avoid the “lights going out.”

Mr Schneider said that EDF with debts of €39bn (£33.3bn) might not have the cash to put into Hinkley and added: “It’s not certain it will go ahead.

“There are a long list of issues that need to be agreed, not only the strike price. Even if there is an agreement the financing package has to be put together. It’s a very long-term investment of very uncertain levels of realisation.”

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/edf-big-trouble-says-french-104450052.html

April 8, 2013 - Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized