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Business|British Government to Spend $19 Billion on New Nuclear Plant
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/business/britain-nuclear-power-plant-sizewell.html
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The new project, called Sizewell C, will be expensive to build, but it will create 10,000 jobs and provide a steady supply of electric power for millions of homes.
June 10, 2025Updated 11:11 a.m. ET
The British government said on Tuesday that it would spend as much as 14.2 billion pounds, or about $19 billion, on constructing a nuclear power station, a project that is expected to create 10,000 jobs and help light up six million homes.
The decision likely means that the giant plant called Sizewell C, whose site on the east coast of England was first identified by the government in 2009, will receive a go-ahead. Much of the funding will come from the government.
EDF, the French state-owned energy group, will build the plant and be part owner. Britain hopes to attract other funding.
Nuclear power plants can cost tens of billions of dollars to build, but they have regained favor in recent years in Britain and elsewhere because they produce large volumes of steady electric power with few emissions. The plants are also viewed as a way to enhance energy security.
The emergence of artificial intelligence, with the growing demand for data centers to run those systems, has also raised the appeal of nuclear energy.
Nuclear power accounted for about 14 percent of Britain’s electricity supply last year.
While announcing funding for the Sizewell plant, the British government also said it had chosen Rolls-Royce SMR, a unit of the aircraft engine maker, as the “preferred bidder” to build so-called small modular nuclear reactors in partnership with a state company called Great British Energy.
