The financial risks of nuclear power were cast into sharp relief on Monday as Areva, the French state-owned group, revealed new provisions on its troubled Finnish reactor project that virtually wiped out interim operating profits.

Anne Lauvergeon, Areva chief executive, said the nuclear engineering group had taken a €550m ($787m) provision in the first half for the new generation EPR reactor being built in Finland. As a result, operating profit tumbled 97 per cent to €16m, while net profit was 79 per cent down at €161m.