The Government of the UK is set to invest £700m ($809m) in the planned Sizewell C nuclear power plant in a bid to improve energy security of the country.
The move was announced by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a visit to Sizewell.
The investment will be made from a £1.7bn fund that was agreed by the cabinet for developing a large-scale nuclear project.
In the speech, Prime Minister Johnson expressed confidence that the funding will ‘get over the line’ over the following few weeks.
The 3.2GW Sizewell C is a nuclear project that will be located near the Sizewell A and B nuclear power plant (NPP) sites in Sizewell, on the Suffolk coast.
The project, being developed by French energy company EDF, is expected to cost around $20bn.
The UK government granted development consent to Sizewell C in July this year. Currently, discussions on raising funds are underway.
The project is expected to be commissioned in early 2030s. Once operational, Sizewell C will meet around 7% of the UK’s electricity supply.
Johnson said: “This project will create tens of thousands of jobs, but it will also power 6m homes – that is roughly a fifth of all the homes in the UK.
“So it will help to fix the energy needs not just of this generation but of the next- a baby born this year will be getting energy from Sizewell C long, long after she retires and this new reactor is just a part of our Great British nuclear campaign.”
