Japanese company Hitachi has signed an almost GBP 700 million deal giving it rights to build a new generation of power plants in the United Kingdom. Hitachi will buy Horizon Nuclear Power, which was intending to build reactors on existing sites at Wylfa, Anglesey, and Oldbury, near Bristol. Horizon originally belonged to German companies RWE and E.On, who announced earlier in the year that they were withdrawing from the UK nuclear market.
PM David Cameron said: “This is a decades-long, multi-billion pound vote of confidence in the UK that will contribute vital new infrastructure to power our economy. It will support up to 12,000 jobs during construction and thousands more permanent highly skilled roles once the new power plants are operational, as well as stimulating exciting new industrial investments in the UK’s nuclear supply chain. I warmly welcome Hitachi as a major new player in the UK energy sector”.
UK engineering companies Babcock International and Rolls-Royce have signed preliminary contracts to join the Hitachi deal, which the Japanese company said should be completed by the end of November. There will then be regulatory issues to clear, but once Hitachi’s reactor design is approved by the necessary authorities the company intends to build 6 GW of nuclear capacity, with the first plant generating power in the first half of the next decade. Hiroaki Nakanishi, president of Hitachi, said this deal marked the group’s “100-year commitment to the UK and its vision to achieve a long-term, secure, low-carbon and affordable energy supply”.