A spokesperson for the U.K. Department of Energy Security and Net Zero said: “We are launching a golden age of nuclear to help deliver clean power, because by taking back control of our energy we will protect family finances, boost energy security, and tackle the climate crisis. Ten thousand jobs will be created through our £14.2 billion investment to build Sizewell C, ending years of delay and uncertainty.”
China crisis
Ed Miliband was defiant in the House of Commons last month, insisting Sizewell C would both offer value for money to billpayers and revive an industry essential to the government’s net zero goals. “We believe that that is the right system and will cut the cost compared with Hinkley Point C,” Miliband said.
Labour MP Bill Esterson, chair of parliament’s Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, was upbeat, too, about the chances that the project, once under construction, would act as a bellwether for the U.K. civil nuclear industry. “Hopefully once Sizewell C is approved we will see further sites chosen [for power plants],” he said.
In the meantime, another challenge is concentrating the minds of both the U.K. and France: China.
Miliband has confirmed China will have no further role in the U.K.’s domestic nuclear fleet. The U.K. government may have sought warmer relations with Beijing in the last 12 months — including visits from Miliband, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Foreign Secretary David Lammy — but nuclear is apparently a red line.
It is ultimately this, a third industry figure argued, which may force the U.K. and France to get the project over the line, amid the search for private financing.