French president François Hollande reaffirmed his support Tuesday for a controversial project that would see France’s state-owned energy company, EDF, build two nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point in the UK, reports FRANCE 24.
Hollande's comments came after France’s energy minister Ségolène Royal questioned whether the project made financial sense due to its “colossal” £18 billion (23 billion euro) cost.
“I’m in favour of this project going ahead,” Hollande told Europe 1 radio.
“We need a nuclear industry of high performance, of high security in France, and … we cannot let others export to markets that up to now have been French.”
Hinkley Point C in Somerset, southwest England, is due to be built by EDF in partnership with the China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN).
It will be Britain's first nuclear power plant to be built in decades and is expected to provide seven percent of the UK’s energy needs when it becomes operational.
Its projected 23 billion euro cost would also be one of the world's most expensive nuclear power plants. And while the British government says it would guarantee the price of energy the reactors produce for 35 years, the plunging wholesale cost of electricity puts this commitment in doubt.
Questions have been raised about the financial viability of the project as EDF, which is 85 percent owned by the French state, is struggling with a debt pile of more than 37 billion euros.
Last month, the French government announced that it would inject three billion euros into the energy provider, as part of a four-billion-euro capital increase.