Hinkley Point C nuclear plant delayed to 2030 as costs climb to £35bn

French utility company EDF says operations in Somerset will start a year later as delay costs firm €2.5bn

Britain’s first new nuclear plant in a generation at the Hinkley Point C site will face further delay, at a cost of €2.5bn to the French utility company EDF.

EDF said the first reactor at the site in Somerset will begin operations a year later than planned in 2030 – almost 13 years after construction work began – after a series of delays to the project.

The latest delay will wipe almost £3bn from the French state-owned developer’s accounts and take the total cost of building the nuclear plant to £35bn, or almost double the estimate of £18bn when it was given the green light in 2016. However, the final cost will be far higher once inflation is taken into account as EDF gives its cost estimates in 2015 prices.

The chief executive of EDF, Bernard Fontana, said the new forecasts were “more realistic” and added the 2030 startup was “within a range that has not changed” since 2024, when it said operations would start between 2029 and 2031.