Hinkley Point, Edf's dilemma. The headline of the French newspaper Les Echos it is emblematic of the moment that the largest European energy company is experiencing, which also controls the Italian one Edison. EDF (Eléctricité de France) is in fact at the crossroads on nuclear power: to invest 23,3 billion euros in new British plants, in order to allow the Government to respect the trade agreements already stipulated with Great Britain and China, or avoid spending a figure objectively too high for the group's accounts, so much so as to lead the CFO to resign, worried by the (non) feasibility of the operation?
“Hinkley Point could be the construction site too many for Edf – argues Les Echos – but at the same time giving it up would be serious damage to the image of a company already tested by the flops in Finland and in Flamanville, in the Channel. It would mean giving up the entire nuclear export sector”. For over forty years, the state utility has in fact been the global giant of nuclear energy. Having kicked off since the 70s on a massive policy in favor of the construction of nuclear power plants (a strategy to which President François Hollande is giving further acceleration), France has thus enjoyed – for a long time – not only low-cost energy but also considerable political weight thanks to its role as leader in the sector.
But now something has changed. The latest crack in the EDF giant came to light on Sunday evening: Thomas Picmal, CFO of the group and manager among the best known and esteemed beyond the Alps, preferred to step aside after the umpteenth clash over the construction of nuclear power plants in Great Britain. Piquemal, according to the reconstructions arriving from Paris and from those who know the EDF world, would have expressed all his doubts on more than one occasion, above all at a time when EDF is already engaged in the delicate rescue of Areva, the company which owns the patents for the construction of the plants and which has always supplied "atomic" technology.
In fact the manager took sides against the Government and its political-economic alliance with Great Britain, which revolves precisely around the new Hinkley Point plant. The affair has implications not only financial (Edf continues to lose on the Stock Exchange: oghgi has dropped below 10 euros per share, while at the end of 2015 it was above 15 euros) and technological, but also geopolitical strategies. So much so that both the London and Paris governments immediately intervened on the matter: "We reiterate our total support for the project" at Hinkley Point, which will be "very profitable over the next 30 years", he declared the French economy minister, Emmanuel Macron.
The same reaction from the banks of the Thames: "We continue to fully support the project", said a spokeswoman for the British prime minister, David Cameron, underlining that the resignation of the financial director is a matter that "concerns EDF". However, not only the French and English are interested in the relaunch of nuclear power in the UK: China is also in the game. Beijing is ready to cover up to 30% of the costs to be shared with the French EDF, in collaboration with a consortium led by the China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN).
