EDF deal for new UK nuclear plant to be signed in October

A £25 billion ($39 billion, 36 billion euro) deal for French energy company EDF to build Britain's new nuclear power station will be confirmed when China's President Xi Jinping visits London in October, Britain's press reported Wednesday.

Chinese firms CGN and CNNC are expected to get a stake of around 40 percent in -- and provide much of the construction financing for -- the two new EPR reactors, which are hoped to generate seven percent of Britain's electricity.

Britain's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has reached an agreement with EDF to develop the Hinkley nuclear power plant in southwest England, and politicians are set to approve the deal when parliament reconvenes in September, according to The Guardian.

Xi is expected to formally confirm the deal during a state visit to Britain in October.

"We are now moving very quickly towards a final investment decision after the summer break," EDF chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy said on Thursday while announcing results for the first half of 2015.

"All stakeholders are working together and the final investment decision will be made as quickly as possible," a spokesman for EDF added Wednesday.

A DECC spokesman told AFP the department was "continuing to work to finalise the Hinkley project."

EDF had initially targeted late 2014 as a possible date for all stakeholders to agree investment terms, but has been forced to push back the deadline.

The European Commission has approved the guaranteed price paid by London for electricity produced at Hinkley, but the Austrian government has complained to the European Court.