SIR — As the Hinkley Point C construction site has been mothballed and put into a state of care and maintenance until a final investment decision is made, is this the beginning of the end for this disastrous project?

Whether it finally goes ahead or not is not in the hands of local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger, Somerset councillors or even the British and French governments, however much they want it to progress.

The key deciding factor will be if anybody is crazy enough to invest the vast sums of money required to build what is probably the most expensive building project in the world.

The European Union recognises the cost of this project has risen to £24.5 billion and is still rising, so why has it become so expensive?

The problem has been the ambitious French design of the new third generation nuclear reactor, the European Pressurised Water Reactor.

It was marketed by the French government as being the world’s safest and most fuel efficient nuclear reactor, relying on France’s previous successful history as the world’s leader in nuclear technology. So what went wrong?

This large and complicated reactor design has been recognised by nuclear engineers as virtually unconstructable, all the EPR construction sites around the world are suffering long delays in construction, along with spiralling costs many times the original estimates. None of the EPR reactors are completed and working anywhere in the world.

The first EPR being built by Areva at Olkiluoto in Finland was beset with construction problems and is now predicted to be at least nine years late; similarly the Flamanville reactor being built by EDF is already suffering a five-year delay and two Chinese reactors are well behind schedule.

This reactor has a long history of energy companies who were keen to invest in building the EPR but, seeing the growing construction problems and increasing costs, withdrew their investments.

Many countries considering building new nuclear chose other smaller and cheaper reactor designs from Korea and Russia.

The only other country in the world considering buying the EPR is India, though it is having serious doubts over the spiralling costs.

EDF has been on a desperate search for rich investors prepared to take on this huge risky investment.

Areva, the French state-owned nuclear company was originally going to supply ten per cent of the costs but is now in dire financial straits and basically bankrupt due to the ever-increasing costs and liabilities in failing to build the Finnish EPR to time and cost.

EDF, the main French state-owned nuclear company, was supposed to be investing between 30-40 per cent of the Hinkley costs but now has to absorb the debts of Areva, and is not in a strong financial position as it has to spend billions of euros upgrading its 50 plus reactors to post Fukushima safety levels if it is to extend their generating lives.

So who will invest the other two thirds of the investment? China?

But China is not interested in the French EPR and, struggling to build this reactor at home, it is designing its own new Chinese reactor.

Will the Chinese take on a massive risky investment in a reactor that the rest of the world does not want?

Should we allow China to play a major part in the nuclear industry in Britain? There are surely many security and safety issues of letting China control this strategic part of our Britain’s infrastructure.

Allan Jeffery,

Assistant Co-ordinator,

Stop Hinkley.