Sizewell C: China ‘bought out’ of new nuclear power station, Grant Shapps confirms

A state-owned Chinese nuclear power company is “no longer involved” in a plans for Sizewell C, the Business Secretary confirmed on Tuesday.

Grant Shapps told the Commons: “I can confirm to him that China are now bought out of the deal on Sizewell and the money yesterday ensured that they are no longer involved in this particular development.”

SNP energy spokesman Alan Brown had asked: “Has the Government finally bought out China General Nuclear from the Sizewell C consortium?”

Elsewhere, the chair of the intelligence and security committee Julian Lewis called on ministers to “confirm that we will have no future dependency on China for our nuclear power stations”.

Mr Shapps replied: “I can certainly confirm the case of Sizewell C, as I mentioned earlier, that we are making sure that the Chinese element of that is no longer involved.

“We don’t have a principled objection apart from where issues of national security are concerned and things like energy provision are very much in our sights.”

The Government is spending an initial £679m to help get the £20bn Sizewell C nuclear power plant project off the ground.

Part of this will go to state-owned China General Nuclear (CGN) under an exit deal.

The Government earlier confirmed the go-ahead for the new Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk.

The move, which ministers said would create 10,000 highly skilled jobs and provide reliable low-carbon power to the equivalent of six million homes for more than 50 years, is part of efforts to secure UK energy security.

The Government also said it would set up an arms-length body, Great British Nuclear, which would develop a pipeline of nuclear projects beyond Sizewell C.

The plant in Suffolk, developed by French energy giant EDF, will be the second of a new generation of nuclear power reactors, after the delayed Hinkley Point C scheme in Somerset which is under construction, but has seen costs climb since it was first given the go-ahead.

EDF’s chief executive, Simone Rossi, said replicating Hinkley Point C’s design at Sizewell would provide more certainty over schedule and costs, adding: “It will deliver another big boost to jobs and skills in the nuclear industry and provide huge new opportunities for communities in Suffolk”.

Confirmation that China is no longer involved after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the “golden era” of UK-Chinese relations is over.

He made the comment at the annual Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London on Monday evening amid a diplomatic row over the arrest and alleged beating of a BBC journalist covering Covid protests in Shanghai.

On Tuesday, China’s ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, was summoned to the Foreign Office over the treatment of cameraman Edward Lawrence, who the BBC said was “beaten and kicked” by police in the Chinese city.