Nuclear sites acquired in £160m deal with Japanese tech giant
In his Spring Budget, Jeremy Hunt revealed a £160m deal with Japanese technology giant Hitachi to purchase two nuclear sites.
The Wylfa site in Ynys Môn and the Oldbury-on-Severn site in South Gloucestershire have been purchased after work stalled on both schemes when Hitachi withdrew in 2020.
850 people would have had full-time jobs at the two stations once they were completed by the company’s UK subsidiary, Horizon.
Hunt said to the House of Commons: “We want nuclear to provide up to 25 per cent of UK electricity by 2050 and I want the UK to lead the global race in developing cutting-edge nuclear technologies.”
The Government is currently exploring a further large-scale reactor project in addition to Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C, as well as working with Great British Nuclear on the second stage of a selection process for Small Modular Reactors.
Six companies have been invited to submit their initial tender responses by June this year.
A £120m boost to support the expansion of low-carbon manufacturing supply chains across the UK was also announced.
The Green Industries Growth Accelerator (GIGA) has more than £1bn of funding available and will split the money by sector.
Up to £390m is expected to fuel offshore wind and electricity networks and another £390m will back supply chains of Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) and hydrogen.
This sits alongside the £300m already allocated to nuclear fuels for the High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) programme.
