UK APPROVES NUCLEAR PLANT DEAL
The UK government has approved a new £18bn nuclear power station in the UK after imposing “significant new safeguards” to protect national security. The new plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset is being financed by the French and Chinese governments. However, the UK government says it will have control over foreign investment in “critical infrastructure”. Ministers will be able to stop EDF, the state-controlled French energy firm, from selling its stake in Hinkley.
The Chinese agreed to take a stake in Hinkley, which will meet 7% of Britain’s electricity needs, and to develop a new nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk on the understanding that the UK government would approve a Chinese-led and designed project at Bradwell in Essex. That decision has raised questions over national security.
The two nuclear reactors will be in southwest England. Hinkley Point C will proceed under the condition that EDF — which has a Chinese partner in the project — won’t be able to sell down its controlling stake prior to completion of construction without government approval, according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
The approval crowns almost a decade of efforts by EDF to prepare for the replacement of its U.K. nuclear fleet, acquired when it took control of British Energy Plc in 2008.