29 August 2023
The government has today announced a further £341 million for Sizewell C, on top of £870 already spent (not including a £100 option agreement in January 2022), amounting to over a billion pounds of taxpayers’ money so far. https://www.gov.uk/
Stop Sizewell C understands that the government is just reaching parity with EDF in terms of ownership of the Sizewell C project, but expects to be a majority owner by the end of this year (confidential sources), prior to a Final Investment Decision in 2024.
Stop Sizewell C said “The UK government acquiring a bigger and bigger stake in Sizewell C is letting France and EDF off the hook for their terrible project. What a shocking legacy for Sunak’s government, to be duped into throwing good taxpayers’ money after bad in order to shore up what would almost certainly be the very last EPR reactors built. Meanwhile no one can explain why it is a good idea for the UK to pursue this tortuously difficult technology when the French are moving on to a simpler, cheaper design.”
Note. Unlike the UK, France does not intend to build any more EPR reactors. Former EDF CEO Henri Proglio told the French Assembly in December 2022: “The EPR is too complicated, almost unbuildable. We see the result today.” France instead intends to build six reactors of a simplified design called the EPR2, the first at Penly (p6 of link).
