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Britain's debt to foreign power: China's nuclear revolution - Telegraph
George Osborne has effectively handed the nation's nuclear industry over to Chinese and French giants
George Osborne has effectively handed the nation's nuclear industry over to Chinese and French giants
It will all start – under a deal expected to be finalised next week – with the state-owned China General Nuclear Power joining the equally nationalised Electricité de France (EDF) in constructing a £14 billion brace of reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset. The Chinese will have a minority share in the project, but have made it clear – and George Osborne accepts this – that they should have a controlling interest in future schemes.
So, much of Britain's highly sensitive nuclear industry – which sprang from the atomic bomb programme – is effectively to be owned by two foreign powers, one the country's oldest traditional enemy, the other a bitter Cold War opponent. Few other nations, and certainly not China, would dream of permitting anything of the kind. Doesn't Mr Osborne see that this could be a bit radioactive, shall we say?
He half-concedes the point. "There are many countries in the world who wouldn't want other countries involved in their civil nuclear programme," he admits, but adds: "I do, because if it wasn't Chinese investment or French investment, it would have to be British taxpayers."
Why taxpayers? Because British investors and industry shun nuclear power. Indeed the Chinese are replacing Centrica, which pulled out, with rapidly cooling feet, earlier this year. No one has built an atomic power station here since the nationalised Central Electricity Generating Board 20 years ago and it managed only one – at Sizewell – out of a planned programme of 10. Although commentators frequently fulminate about the failure of successive governments to go nuclear, the real problem has been that – in a liberalised electricity market – no one could be persuaded to invest in new reactors.
It is much the same around the world. The atom's share of global electricity generation stagnated for a quarter of a century even before the Fukushima accident. That disaster hit the industry hard, with countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Belgium phasing it out altogether. All of Japan's 50 nuclear power stations are now offline, and only last week the Canadian province of Ontario killed plans to construct two new ones.
The two next-generation reactors being built in Europe – in Finland and France – are years behind schedule and billions of euros over-budget. And even before work begins, costs have been soaring, and the timetable slipping, at Hinkley too.
China, by contrast, is a really bright spot, building about half the atomic power stations now under construction in the world. Critics worry about its nuclear industry's safety arrangements and lack of transparency – just as they doubt the wisdom of entrusting energy security to a state so prone to launching cyber-attacks – but it is putting reactors up within budget and on schedule. So there's a good chance that Chinese involvement will finally bring Britain's new-build programme to life.