Bouygues gets $1.8bn Hinkley N-plant contract

Bloomberg

Bouygues SA won a construction contract worth at least 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion) for the controversial Hinkley Point nuclear plant in the UK that will use the same technology as over-budget and delayed projects in France and Finland.
Bouygues will work with UK firm Laing O’Rourke on construction of the buildings that will house the two nuclear reactors, the Paris-based company said in a statement.
The contract is from French state-controlled utility Electricite de France SA, which got approval in September to build Hinkley Point, an 18-billion-pound nuclear plant on England’s western coast that will be the most expensive ever built. The project uses so-called EPR technology that has led to construction taking longer than forecast and running over budget for reactors in Flamanville, France, and in Finland.
The U.K. contract reflects Bouygues’ experience in nuclear civil engineering, the company said. Bouygues shares rose 0.7 percent to 34.10 euros at 9:18 a.m. in Paris. At Flamanville, Bouygues had to correct flaws in some walls and other parts of the plant, with Chief Executive Officer Martin Bouygues calling the model “extremely complex” to build, notably because the quantity of steel used made the pouring of concrete difficult.
France’s atomic safety watchdog temporarily halted construction at the plant in 2008 due to problems with the quality of the concrete reinforcement used. Bouygues first started digging at that site in September, 2006 and the reactor is now scheduled to start up in the fourth quarter of 2018, six years behind schedule and for a total cost that has tripled to 10.5 billion euros.