The government has signed the £18bn contract with French energy giant EDF for the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.
The deal was finalised at a low-key ceremony in London yesterday with officials from the UK, France and China present.
The project has been stop and start over the last few months but was finally given a government go-ahead a few weeks ago. The plant will power nearly six million homes and be the UK’s first new nuclear plant in a generation.
The formal signing was attended by business secretary Greg Clark and French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.
China’s National Energy Administration director, Nur Bekri, and the chairman of Chinese firm CGN, He Yu, also attended.
Clark said that signing the contract was “a crucial moment in the UK’s first new nuclear power station for a generation and follows new measures put in place by government to strengthen security and ownership”.
Ayrault said he was pleased that the UK government had decided to go ahead with the project.
