Electricite de France SA’s board approved an $24 billion project to build Britain’s first nuclear power plant in more than 20 years, and entered exclusive talks with a state-owned bank to attract EUR 4 billion in support for the Hinkley project. However, the UK government announced it won’t rule on the project until later this year.

Electricite de France SA’s board shrugged off concerns that construction will financially strain the state-run utility. The two reactors “will strengthen EDF’s presence in Britain, a country where its subsidiary, EDF Energy, already operates 15 nuclear reactors and is the largest electricity supplier by volume,” the Paris-based company said in a statement last Thursday. Hinkley Point “is a unique asset for French and British industries as it will benefit the whole of the nuclear sectors.”

EDF’s management hopes that Thursday’s board meeting will end debate about the project’s merit, already contested by experts, some French labor-unions and independent organizations. Earlier this year, the French government had asked EDF, which is 85 percent state-owned, to sell up to half of its 100 percent stake in RTE – Europe’s biggest electricity transmission network operator – in order to help finance the Hinkley Point’s nuclear reactors. Still, French utility EDF comunicated on Thursday it had entered exclusive talks with state-owned bank Caisse des Depots and its unit CNP Assurances to sell them a 49.9 percent stake in power grid unit RTE. EDF said the deal would be done on the basis of an indicative value of 8.45 billion euros for 100 percent of RTE’s equity and that it could close in the first half of 2017, once regulatory approvals have been obtained.

These plans unexpectedly hit a snag, Wall Street Journal commented, after the British government said it still needed to sign off on the controversial $23.7 billion project and wouldn’t make that decision until the fall. “The government will now consider carefully all the component parts of this project and make its decision in the early autumn,” UK Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark said.

If ratified by the UK, the Hinkley Point contract would result in EDF being paid 92.50 pounds for every megawatt-hour of electricity it produces for 35 years, more than twice the current market price. That would generate an annual rate of return of 9 percent if the plant is built on time and budget, according to EDF’s Chief Executive Officer Jean-Bernard Levy.

The main suppliers to build the two reactors at Hinkley Point include Areva SA, General Electric Co., Bouygues SA, Laing O’Rourke Plc, and Kier Group Plc, according to EDF. China General Nuclear Power Corp. is expected to fund a third of the project.