For CGN, after signing the agreement, the biggest challenge is the high possibility of delays and cost overruns during the construction stage caused by technology challenges and risks from its partner EDF.
As we mentioned before, The Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C plants will be based on EPR reactor technology, while the new plant at Bradwell will use CGN’s Hualong One Creator design.
The EPR and Hualong one design are Third Generation reactors and they are designed to be safer, more powerful and more efficient than earlier versions. It's also meant to be easier to build. But so far the reality has been the opposite.
Both of them are Third Generation reactors which are new technologies and do not have a successful example across the world. Wherever the new EPR is being installed - in Finland, France and China - the projects are beset by delays and massive increases in price.
The first two EPR plants in Finland and France are both facing costly construction delays (to at least 2018). Other two units in China were to start operation in 2014 and 2015, but are now expected to come online in 2017.

And delay means losing money and additional investment. For CGN, this is the first time to build nuclear power plant in a developed country. Whether this project can be finished successfully has a significant impact on its subsequent plants. Delays and cost overruns will have a negative effect for CGN to expand businesses to other countries.

The resignation of such an important figure on the EDF board will make it much harder for the remaining executives to proceed with Hinkley in the short term.

The last nuclear reactor built in the UK was Sizewell B, which was completed in 1995. Since then much of the UK’s nuclear supply chain has withered away. Similarly, the population of skilled nuclear workers is aging. And these workers are not familiar with the Third Generation technology, UK government …. So the project will improve skills of workers, and it will promote the development of related sectors by generating more business opportunities. The UK Government has taken a number of steps to limit the emissions of greenhouse gases through legally binding targets.
For example, The Climate Change Act was passed in 2008 and established a framework to develop an economically credible emissions reduction path.
As a low-carbon source of electricity, this project will contribute to the UK’s long- term climate change and energy security goals.
It also strengthened the UK’s leadership internationally by highlighting the role it would take in contributing to urgent collective action to tackle climate change under the Kyoto Protocol.