EDF says Flamanville reactor delayed to 2018, cost 10.5 bln
PARIS, Sept 3 (Reuters) - French state-controlled utility EDF (Paris: FR0010242511 - news) said on Thursday the EPR nuclear reactor it is building in Flamanville, Normandy, will again be delayed to 2018 and raised the cost estimate to 10.5 billion euros ($11.85 billion) from an initial budget of 3 billion.
Commercial start-up of the Areva (Paris: FR0011027143 - news) -designed EPR reactor - of which EDF plans to build two in Hinkley Point, Britain - has been delayed several times, most recently in November, when EDF (Hanover: E2F.HA - news) said it expected the EPR to go only in 2017.
Construction in Flamanville started at end-2007 and the reactor had been scheduled to start up in 2012. ($1 = 0.8862 euros) (Reporting by Geert De Clercq, Editing by dominique Vidalon)