Great Britain is building a new nuclear power plant.
The British government announced today that the project to build a new EPR Sizewell C nuclear power plant, whose main partner is EDF (Electricite de France), a French multinational energy company, has received the green light from Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng.
The project “involves the construction of a new nuclear power plant that will produce low-carbon electricity to help” the country reach its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, according to a press release. The plant will be able to supply energy to 6 million homes.
London has made nuclear development one of the priorities of its energy strategy, but part of a total of 15 reactors is nearing the end of its life and the only power station currently under construction, Hinkley point C, is an EDF-backed project and China’s CGN. Due to the sudden increase in costs, it will not be operational until 2027.
Amid a cost-of-living crisis fueled by high energy bills and with the war in Ukraine putting energy independence back in the spotlight, Britain wants to speed up the development of nuclear power plants.
By 2050, it plans to build up to eight new reactors at some of its eight nuclear sites. The purpose of their construction is to supply the market with 25 percent of the demand for electricity.
Sizewell C is a power plant project valued by the British press at £20 billion. It consists of two EPR reactors with a capacity of 3.2 GW, of which EDF holds 80 percent, and China’s CGN holds the rest.