UK Puts Up an Extra £1.3 Billion to Build Sizewell C Reactor

(Bloomberg) -- The UK government will invest an additional £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) to build the Sizewell C nuclear plant to try and entice private investors to back the project.

The government will be the majority shareholder in Sizewell and is hoping to attract enough capital to make a final investment decision this year. The extra cash follows a £700 million funding pledge in November 2022 and a further £511 million agreed last summer, according to a statement on Monday.

An investment process is ongoing for the 3.2-gigawatt nuclear power plant that’s being built by Electricite de France SA, a project vital for the UK in proving it can deliver on its strategy to quadruple nuclear-power capacity by 2050. But atomic plant construction is notoriously tricky, typically plagued by cost overruns and delays that make investors wary. The government support is meant to help lower the risk.

Nuclear energy is a key part of the UK’s net zero plan and Sizewell could provide 7% of the nation’s electricity needs, as well as providing back-up electricity to offshore wind that also needs to be built out at record pace. But getting projects off the ground is proving difficult. EDF’s current UK project, Hinkley Point C, won’t start its reactors until 2027 at the earliest after a series of delays. 

Earlier this month, Britain committed to building another large-scale nuclear power plant after Sizewell C. After that, the government says it will reach a final investment decision on two more nuclear projects by the end of 2029. Those could use small modular reactors or other advanced nuclear technologies.

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