The British Government announced this Wednesday that the construction project for a new nuclear power plant, Sizewell C, of which EDF is its main partner, has received “development authorization” from the Minister for Energy, Kwasi Kwarteng.
This project “involves the construction of a new nuclear power plant that produces reliable, low-carbon electricity to help” the country achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, according to a press release, specifying that the plant could supply 6 million homes.
London has made nuclear development one of the priorities of its energy strategy, but many of its 15 reactors are at the end of their useful life and the only plant currently under construction, Hinkley point C, a project also supported by EDF and the Chinese CGN , has seen its costs skyrocket and will not open until 2027.
8 new reactors
Amid a cost-of-living crisis fueled by soaring energy bills, and given the war in Ukraine that has put energy independence back in the spotlight, the UK wants to speed up the development of atomic energy. It plans up to eight new reactors by 2050 at some of its eight designated nuclear sites, with the goal of supplying 25% of electricity demand. Sizewell C is a power plant project valued by the British press at £20 billion comprising two EPR reactors with a capacity of 3.2 GW, of which EDF owns 80%, again together with China’s CGN which owns the rest.
While Conservative MPs regularly denounce China’s influence on British strategic assets, putting pressure on the government, the press release does not specify whether CGN will always be a partner or will eventually be pushed out, as the British press has been mentioning for months. . Spokesmen for the energy ministry, contacted by AFP, were not immediately available.
London announced in January to inject a further £100m into the Sizewell C development, located in Suffolk on the country’s east coast, and “attract further financing from private investors”. And the British Government has foreseen in its budget guidelines published in October up to 1,700 million pounds that could be allocated to the development of this project, in which London could participate directly.
The executive announced in October a new model for financing his nuclear power plant projects that will weigh part of the cost on people’s energy bills but should reduce the total cost of these expensive reactors.
Source: BFM TV
