Cash plan agreed for nuclear plants

NuGen wants to build three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors with a combined output of 3.4GW

A new generation of nuclear power stations in Britain moved a step closer as the government announced it had signed an agreement with NuGen to promote financing for plants at Moorside, near Sellafield in Cumbria.

The company, which is a consortium formed by French utility GDF Suez and Japan’s Toshiba, wants to build three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors with a combined output of 3.4GW by the end of 2026. The first reactor may be connected to the grid by the end of 2024. The agreement with the government establishes a process to enable access to the UK Guarantee Scheme, which was introduced in 2012 to accelerate investments in major infrastructure projects. The scheme was brought in to avoid delays to investment in infrastructure projects that may have stalled because of adverse credit conditions. It works by providing a sovereign-backed guarantee for up to £40 billion to help projects access finance.

The government must guarantee a financial obligation, but there is wide discretion over how a guarantee is structured in terms of scale, timing, risk exposure and relationship, subject to the needs and dynamics of each individual project.

Sandy Rupprecht, chief executive of NuGen, said: “The signing of this co-operation agreement with HM Treasury is another demonstration of NuGen’s forward momentum with our Moorside project in west Cumbria.”