Forthcoming discussions about Sizewell

Posted: 28th September 2020

French energy giant EDF is set for a showdown with the Treasury over state
funding for nuclear power stations as Britain’s atomic future faces a
make-or-break moment. Jean-Bernard Lévy, chairman and chief executive of
Électricité de France, will speak to chancellor Rishi Sunak via video
link on Wednesday to demand clarity over Britain’s plans for funding
nuclear power. The industry was left reeling this month when Japan’s
Hitachi quit its Horizon project to build a £20bn plant on Anglesey. That
shock retreat, after years of prevarication by Westminster over state
support for nuclear power and turmoil in the Japanese nuclear industry,
left only EDF and China General Nuclear with plans for atomic power
stations in the UK. EDF and China are building the delayed and over-budget
£22.5bn Hinkley Point C power station in Somerset, but Paris has balked at
the prospect of French taxpayers funding the next nuclear project in
Britain. Instead, EDF, which is 84% owned by the French state, wants
British taxpayers to underwrite a new plant at Sizewell in Suffolk. A
proposed new financial structure, the regulated asset base, would levy a
tax on UK household energy bills to help pay for the project. Other options
include the British government taking a stake — although that has worried
the Treasury, which is anxious about adding to its debt mountain. EDF
declined to comment. With most of Britain’s ageing reactors due to close
by the end of the decade, Sunak and Boris Johnson face the dilemma of
whether to fund more big nuclear plants, or rely on wind, solar, gas, small
reactors and imported power to keep the lights on. The American government
has warned Hitachi against selling the Anglesey site to China, and is
understood to be considering bankrolling US companies to take it over.
Westinghouse, which makes the AP1000 nuclear plant, and NuScale Power,
which is developing small, modular reactors, are both believed to be
exploring options for the site. South Korea’s Kepco is also understood to
be interested, as is EDF.

Times 27th Sept 2020

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/frances-edf-demands-clarity-on-british-nuclear-power-plans-00t6gbmlg