EDF board members file legal challenge to Hinkley Point
The Hinkley Point nuclear power station has run into more difficulties.
Five EDF board members have filed a legal challenge to the company's decision to go ahead with its Hinkley Point C nuclear project in Somerset, EDF unions said today.
The government last month delayed its decision on Hinkley until the early autumn, despite EDF giving the project the go-ahead with a 10 to seven vote in favour of it.
However, the French power company's approval of the £18bn construction plan was not won without controversy.
One of the group's board members stepped down ahead of the vote in July – Gerard Magnin said in his resignation letter: "As a board member proposed by the government shareholder, I no longer want to support a strategy that I do not agree with."
And French unions have since said that EDF's approval of the Hinkley project isn't valid.
Meanwhile, a think tank said earlier this month that axing plans for new nuclear reactors at Hinkley could save UK taxpayers up to £1bn a year.
The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit said the 3.2 gigawatts of capacity that the new reactors are expected to provide could instead by generated through a mix of new policies and existing technologies.
EDF declined to comment.