EDF fires warning over post-Brexit nuclear outages

Leaving Euratom could cause outages at existing plants and delay construction of Hinkley Point

EDF has warned that the UK’s withdrawal from the EU could lead to outages at its existing UK nuclear stations and cause delays to the construction of its new plant at Hinkley Point.

Presenting evidence to the House of Lords energy and environment select committee inquiry into the impact of Brexit on the UK’s energy security, the French owned utility’s corporate policy and regulation director Angela Hepworth said that Britain’s potential exit from the Euratom nuclear co-operation treaty was a “significant concern”.

She said EDF “very much” relied on the Euratom treaty, which governs the international transfer of nuclear staff and materials, to enable the operation of?? its existing nuclear power stations.

“Any disruption to those arrangements could have implications for security of supply. It’s absolutely essential that replacement arrangements replicate as far as possible existing Euratom arrangements,” Hepworth said, adding that EDF wanted a plan and a timetable from the government as soon as possible.

Hepworth said that the breakdown of a single component could lead to service outages if the replacement had to be imported from another country, which could become much more difficult if the UK did leave Euratom without a similar arrangement being put in place.

She also said that EDF relied on being able to move nuclear staff between countries, which could be restricted if the UK were unable to replicate Euratom arrangements.

She cited as an example how the company had drawn on expertise from the US and France to fix a problem at its Sizewell reactor in Suffolk.

She added that the UK nuclear industry depended most heavily on the EU for engineers.

Hepworth also said potential post-Brexit restrictions on migration would have an impact on the Hinkley project, which will require up to 25,000 workers over its construction phase.

As an example, she said that the project would need 1,400 steel fixers when construction activity peaks, which is more than half the total number of such workers across the UK.

Hepworth also told the Lords committee that it would be difficult for companies to recruit steel fixers from abroad under the UK’s immigration rules.

“Steel fixing doesn’t meet the criteria for skilled employment under the UK’s points based system and is not classed as a shortage occupation,” she said, adding that the company would face similar challenges recruiting other skilled construction workers such as bricklayers, welders and electricians.

Dr Jenifer Baxter, head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said that further delays were likely to result from the need for extra security checks for workers after the UK left the EU.

She said: “Security clearance is relatively easy for EU workers. Bringing people onto site will take longer which will cause delays for construction.”