Great Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to increase the contribution of nuclear power plants to the electricity supply from the current 16 percent to 25 percent in the long term.

He said this at a meeting with industry managers.

A share of a quarter would necessitate a major expansion of nuclear capacity, also because of the expected increase in electricity demand from electric cars and heat pumps.

Currently, nuclear reactors generate around 16 percent of the island's electricity.

However, most of the eleven nuclear reactors are old and will have to be taken off the grid in this decade, so that the proportion of nuclear power will initially decrease.

Johnson has long been pushing for a nuclear renaissance, but getting there is a difficult one.

The two pressurized water reactors in Hinkley Point C, the first new nuclear power plant to be built in two decades, will not go online until 2026 and 2027, with a capacity of a good 3.2 gigawatts.

Construction has been delayed and will be more expensive than planned at more than £21 billion.

The client is the French EDF group.

In addition, the government wants to build a Sizewell C pressurized water reactor on the east coast of England, again with EDF.

EDF is also considering extending the Sizewell B reactor by twenty years.

Another project, a new nuclear power station at Wylfa on the island of Anglesey in Wales, has stalled completely after Japan's Hitachi group pulled out.

Johnson wants to revive it.

The American industrial groups Westinghouse and Bechtel have submitted offers for a large pressurized water reactor of the AP1000 type.

However, there are concerns in the Ministry of Finance that the nuclear power plants are becoming too expensive.

The British government is pinning its hopes on so-called Small Modular Reactors (SMR), small nuclear power plants with 470 megawatts that Rolls-Royce is developing.

These should be significantly cheaper than the large power plants because of the modular design.

Six new nuclear reactors planned

According to media reports, representatives from Rolls-Royce, Westinghouse and Bechtel, EDF and the insurance and financial groups Aviva and Legal & General Group attended the meeting with Johnson on Monday evening.

There has not yet been an official announcement of Johnson's expansion goals.

The new energy policy strategy is expected shortly.

According to media reports, this should include at least six new nuclear reactors in the years 2030 to 2050.

The prime minister has recently been very optimistic about nuclear power.

Previously, Johnson had primarily committed to a strong expansion of renewable energies such as wind power in order to achieve the UK's net-zero CO2 target by 2050.

Wind turbines currently contribute about a quarter of electricity production.

The installed capacity is expected to increase from 10 to 40 gigawatts in this decade.

Because of the decision to stop imports of Russian oil and gas by the end of the year, new British oil and gas production projects are also being planned in the North Sea.

The regulator will issue new licenses this year.