THE government has to scrap its new nuclear build plans. No, not for Moorside – we’ll come to that later.

It has to bin the multi-billion deal it has signed with French power firm EDF for the Hinkley Point plant at Somerset.

Surely, if the company’s own finance chief thinks the deal is too expensive we should listen?

Thomas Piquemal says the French-Chinese deal will wreck EDF and has resigned from his post in protest.

It’s estimated the cost has already ballooned from £14bn to £24.5bn.

All this at a time when energy firms are reporting major losses and cutting jobs.

Two thirds of the bill is being funded by EDF with the rest coming from China. But we will ultimately foot the costs.

Under the terms of the agreement, EDF will be paid three times the current wholesale price of electricity FOR 35 YEARS.

This will be index-linked to inflation. Of course.

Analysts and experts have long questioned the thinking behind creating the specially-built plant and some are now saying we could save billions if we replaced it with a tried-and-tested design such as the Moorside development to replace Sellafield.


Mark Green A Hitachi-designed reactor is planned for Anglesey and one from Toshiba is earmarked for Moorside.

Apart from their safety already being proven, these are quicker and cheaper to build.

EDF hasn’t built a reactor like the one planned for Hinkley. A similar scheme is Finland is reported to be now nine years and £2bn overdue.

Another plant in France has seen its cost rocket from £2.5bn to £8bn.

Nuclear power stations are always complex and expensive, but does Hinkley really have to be this expensive?

Do we honestly have to commit to decades of excessive overpayments?

How can the government complain about the cost of subsidies to wind farm companies and solar panel firms when they are prepared to pay this much for nuclear plants?

We need to take a step back from the Hinkley project, take a breath, take another look and use the template of Moorside.

Above all, nuclear plants MUST be safe.

Hinkley, like Moorside, has to provide power for decades to come.

I’d rather go with something tried and tested and proven than something which is a massively costly leap in the dark.