LONDON (Reuters) – Britain said it agreed to provide a loan guarantee to Japan’s Hitachi <6501.T> to help it finance a new multi-billion pound nuclear plant in Wales.
The finance ministry on Wednesday said it would offer the UK guarantee to Hitachi to help finance its planned 2,600 megawatt Wylfa nuclear power station in north Wales, “subject to final due diligence and ministerial approval”.
Britain has an ambitious target to replace its ageing nuclear fleet by the middle of the next decade, and Hitachi is one of a handful of firms ready to take on high upfront costs to build new reactors.
Hitachi has said the plant will be based on its Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) designs but has not provided estimates for how much the project will cost.
The agreement follows a UK guarantee offer earlier this year to France’s EDF for its 16 billion pound Hinkley Point nuclear project in southern England.
The government also said in October it had agreed on a minimum price, a so-called strike price, with EDF for power generated from Hinkley Point – the first deal by a European government that guarantees future returns for a nuclear plant.
The finance ministry is also expected to announced the final strike prices for renewable energy projects on Wednesday as part of a wider UK infrastructure plan.
($1 = 0.6092 British pounds)
(Reporting by Karolin Schaps; editing by Jane Baird)
UK offers loan guarantee to Hitachi for new nuclear plant
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