Sizewell nuclear power station, England.
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LEFTERIS PITARAKIS / AP / SIPA
The British government will discuss with the French giant EDF the construction of a nuclear power station in Suffolk on the east coast of England, confirming its ambitions in the atom, an energy on which it is counting to meet its climate objectives.
EDF, which thus strengthens its leading position in the British nuclear revival, announced in May that it had filed an application to build this new plant with a capacity of 3.2 GW and capable of supplying electricity to six million of homes.
"At least one nuclear power station" by the end of the legislature
The public authorities do not exclude participating in the financing of this plant, Sizewell C, which will be equipped with two EPR reactors, according to a statement Monday from the Department of Enterprise unveiling several measures to green the British economy.
The government "is evaluating the possibilities to make it possible to invest in at least one nuclear power plant" by the end of this legislature, that is to say 2024, it is specified.
This project at Sizewell, estimated according to the British press at 20 billion pounds (21.8 billion euros), could create 25,000 jobs for its construction and operation, estimated in May EDF.
Already an operating plant in Sizewell
This decision "is excellent news", welcomed Humphrey Cadoux-Hudsonn, Managing Director of Sizewell C at EDF, who said he was "impatient to start discussions with the government on an appropriate funding model".
The British union Unite also welcomed the news but warns that the negotiations are "complex" and could last.
At Sizewell there are two plants, Sizewell A opened in the 1960s and closed in 2006, and Sizewell B, opened in 1995 and still in operation.
The power station is designed as a virtual replica of the one at Hinkley Point located in Somerset (South West England) and should be developed like the latter by EDF with the Chinese minority partner CGN.
The government press release does not mention CGN.
Economic relations between London and Beijing have been strained since the decision to exclude Huawei from the country's 5G network.
Nuclear power with a still uncertain future in the United Kingdom
Hinkley Point C, validated by the government in 2016, is the only nuclear power plant under construction in the country.
London is considering a new funding model for nuclear power to put the initial cost less heavily on the industrial promoter and more on the consumer bill.
British ambitions in the atom have in fact been thwarted recently due to the abandonment in September by the Japanese industrial conglomerate Hitachi of its power plant project in Wales, which it considered too risky financially, and questions about the involvement of the Chinese CGN in several cases.
"We continue to believe that the future of large-scale nuclear in the UK is uncertain, due to the accelerated development of renewables and the delays observed at Hinkley Point C," warn analysts at RBC bank.
Nuclear supplies around 20% of the country's electricity and the government wants to maintain this share in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. There are currently 15 reactors in the UK at 8 sites.
But also mini-reactors, offshore wind turbines, carbon capture and storage ...
The government also details several measures Monday in a "white paper" on energy to allow the sector to help the country achieve its climate goals and create 220,000 jobs over the next decade.
It will set up a fund of 385 million pounds (420 million euros) to develop mini-nuclear reactors (SMRs or small modular reactors) intended for scale-model plants, a project on which a consortium led by the group is working in particular. British industrial Rolls-Royce.
London also wants to quadruple the production of offshore wind to 40 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 and invest 1 billion pounds (1.08 billion euros) in four projects of carbon capture and storage as well as 240 million (262 million euros) in the production of hydrogen.
A new carbon market in creation
Finally, the government will set up on January 1 its own emissions trading system (ETS) which governs emissions from heavy industries and power plants and leave that of the European Union due to Brexit.
For the NGO Greenpeace, "it is good to see the government determined to move away from fossil fuels and to create thousands of green jobs, but building more nuclear power plants is not the solution", unlike according to her. renewable.
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