EDF has been given consent to start constructing the Hinkley Point C power station despite a UN body asking the UK government to halt work.
EDF has been given consent to start constructing the Hinkley Point C power station despite a UN body asking the UK government to halt work.
The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) accused the UK last year of contravening the convention on transboundary pollution by failing to consult other European countries about the development of the plant in Somerset.
It now wants all work halted, fearing continuation would undermine moves to address the issue, specifically until feedback is received from other countries on whether it would be helpful for them to be formally notified under the Espoo Convention on transboundary environmental impacts.
The committee said that if affected parties believed notification would be useful and asked to participate in the transboundary environmental impact assessment (EIA), the results of the procedure might be rendered irrelevant if work on the plant continued.
UNECE said it had requested the UK government to suspend work until the transboundary EIA was completed.
However, the Office for Nuclear Regulation subsequently granted the first consent to start building the twin pressurised-water reactor plant.