EDF May Get Site License for Hinkley Reactor by End of November

U.K. regulators plan to give a site license to Electricite de France SA’s proposed Hinkley nuclear station by the end of November, removing one of the hurdles for the company as it decides whether to go ahead with a new plant.

The exact timing “is dependent still on some outstanding information which needs to be received and reviews they need to carry out,” said Colin Patchett, deputy chief inspector for the U.K.’s Office for Nuclear Regulation, in a telephone interview. “So far, we haven’t found any major issues.”

EDF, which will decide on the investment by the year-end, applied for a license in July 2011, saying it would hire as many as 25,000 people during construction. The plant would pave the way for building a new generation of reactors in the U.K., which hasn’t commissioned any atomic stations since the 1990s. The nation’s 16 reactors provide 16 percent of its power generation.

EDF may get Hinkley design approval after the site license.

“One of the key things that we will be looking at, and looking for assurance, is the supply chain,” Patchett said. “That they understand what their responsibilities are, what it means to build a plant, and that they have the capability to deliver the components or construct the various pieces of plant to the right specifications to the right standards.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Roxana Zega in London at rzega@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net