UK Edition
A proposed nuclear power plant at the heart of the UK's energy security strategy has been delayed again after political turmoil engulfed the Government.
The Sizewell C plant in Suffolk was plunged into fresh uncertainty on Thursday as ministers said that no decision on whether to grant it planning permission will be made until July 20.
A decision on the 3.2 gigawatt plant in Suffolk was meant to be announced on Friday (Jul 8), already six weeks later than initially planned.
Paul Scully, a business minister, said the new deadline was to make sure the Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng had enough time to consider the proposal.
Sizewell C would be only the second new nuclear power plant built in the UK in a generation after Hinkley Point C, in Somerset. EDF is the main developer behind both projects.
The French state-owned developer says the station will be able to power the equivalent of six million homes and support 70,000 jobs across the UK.
However, the plant has been the subject of a protest campaign supported by Love Actually actor Bill Nighy. The Stop Sizewell C group has claimed the plans are too expensive and a threat to tourism and wildlife.
Nuclear power currently supplies about 16pc to 20pc of Britain’s electricity every year but this figure is expected to fall in coming years. Most of the UK’s ageing nuclear fleet will shut down within a decade.
The Government wants to build around eight new reactors by 2050 to supply about a quarter of projected power demand, as part of efforts to cut emissions and cut dependency on energy imports.
Boris Johnson had pledged to build so many mini-nuclear reactors that he expects “not quite everyone having their own small modular reactors in their gardens, but close to it”.