The firm will also help China, the world’s biggest producer of nuclear energy, to build its own reactor at another British plant in Bradwell, southeast England.
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It finally gave the green light on Thursday, but added provisos to ensure it can intervene to stop any sale of the Hinkley stake held by French power group EDF, and to wield more control over future nuclear projects.
The new plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset is financed by French electric utility company EDF and China, the BBC reported. “CGN looks forward to leveraging its 30 years’ experience in nuclear construction and operation and playing an important role in meeting the UK’s future energy needs”.
The Government also announced there would be “significant new safeguards for future foreign investment in critical infrastructure”, including the Government taking a special share in all new nuclear projects after Hinkley, giving it powers to veto ownership changes. EDF said it had agreed with the government to retain control of the project. It also ensures that Hinkley Point can not change hands without ministers’ approval. The Office for Nuclear Regulation will have to be notified of any potential changes to ownership, and will work with the government to “protect national security”, should any need for that arise.
Steve Hindley, chairman of the Heart of the South West (HotSW) LEP, said Hinkley Point C would transform the region’s economy, turning it into a “leading area for the nuclear sector with global profile”.
With the Republic partly importing energy from Great Britain, some of it nuclear powered, now is the very time that this island should be considering adopting the most up-to-date nuclear technology. The time it will take to build Hinkley Point C will mean that we will continue to be more dependent on our higher carbon energy sectors than if we had opted to invest in our renewables sector more heavily.
A Downing Street spokesman said that Prime Minister Theresa May spoke by phone with French president Francois Hollande before the announcement was made, while Mr Clark spoke with his counterparts in France and China.
University College London’s Professor Michael Grubb said: “The contract will commit United Kingdom energy consumers to pay many tens of billions of pounds over a period of 35 years after first operation – to about 2060”.
“There are still huge outstanding financial, legal and technical obstacles that can’t be brushed under the carpet”, John Sauven, U.K. director at Greenpeace, said in a statement.
He insisted an agreement to pay EDF £92.50 per megawatt hour of electricity “compares broadly with costs of other clean energy”.
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Tom Samson, chief executive of Franco-Japanese venture NuGen, said Hinkley was “the start of the nuclear new build renaissance in the UK”.
