EDF’s cheaper and better reactor too late for Britain

Hinkley Point will be one of the last nuclear sites  to use EDF’s old reactor
Hinkley Point will be one of the last nuclear sites to use EDF’s old reactor

EDF is working on an improved design for its nuclear reactor that is easier and cheaper to build, but it will not be ready in time to be used at Hinkley Point or Sizewell, according to the company’s chief executive.

Jean-Bernard Lévy said that the French state-controlled energy giant was working on plans for a revised design for its 1.65 gigawatt European Pressurised Reactor.

He said in an interview with Les Echoes, the French financial newspaper, that the new model would be ready within four to five years, making it possible “to order one or two that could replace existing reactors seven to eight years later”.

Mr Lévy’s comments, which follow a string of problems and delays with earlier EPR projects in Finland and