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UK government takes final investment decision on Sizewell C nuclear plant
23/7/2025
News
The UK government has taken a 44.9% stake in the Sizewell C nuclear power plant and approved a final investment decision on the 3.2 GW capacity, twin-reactor site in Suffolk. Other investors are Canadian private financier La Caisse (20%), utility Centrica (15%), energy company EDF (12.5%) and private backer Amber Infrastructure (7.6%).
The project was originally planned to be funded by a consortium of EDF and Chinese nuclear developer CGN. However, delays at sister project Hinkley Point C, which was bankrolled by EDF, plus geopolitical concerns about China, rendered that arrangement impossible.
The government says that the funding model for the £38bn plant will be 20% less than Hinkley Point C, and will spread the cost between consumers, taxpayers and private investors. It says it will add about £1 a month to consumer bills during construction using the Regulated Asset Base delivery model.
France export credit agency Bpifrance Assurance Export has proposed a £5bn debt guarantee to back EDF’s commerical bank loans. The UK government’s principal investor the National Wealth Fund will provide ‘the majority’ of debt finance, its first investment in nuclear energy. The government will supply additional capital to facilitate this lending, it says.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves comments: ‘Delivering next generation, publicly-owned clean power is vital to our energy security and growth, which is why we backed Sizewell C. This investment will create thousands of good quality jobs and boost the local economy as we deliver on our Plan for Change.’
Site construction has already begun. Last month, an agreement was signed with Hinkley Point C contractors Balfour Beatty, Laing O’Rourke and Bouygues Travaux Publics, who together form the Civil Works Alliance. CWA will be responsible for enabling works and earthworks, marine and tunnelling works, and main civils works (nuclear island, conventional island, heat sink and balance of plant).
Nigel Cann, Joint Managing Director, Sizewell C, notes: ‘Hinkley Point C has done the heroic work to restart our industry and is seeing big improvements between the construction of reactor Unit 1 and Unit 2. With our CWA partners, we will use replication and innovation to build on that progress and deliver Sizewell C more efficiently and with improved productivity.’
Sizewell C will hold the seventh and eighth units of the EPR pressurised water reactor designs, after the first two units in Taishan, Guangdong province, China, began commercial operation in 2018–2019. EPRs built in Finland and France have also suffered delays and cost overruns.
