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In 2016, when energy company EDF signed an agreement with a Chinese state-owned company to build Sizewell C, the Chinese-British were still in what David Cameron called the “golden age.”
The stake of the China General Nuclear Energy Corporation (CGN), which holds a 20% stake in the 20 billion pound programme, has been hailed as a good fortune that a risk to British security.
Four years later, and rising tensions over Hong Kong, Huawei and coronavirus, has turned that golden era to dust – and the new nuclear reactor on the Suffolk coast is becoming the next flashpoint.
Amid a push for the UK to slash its dependency on Chinese money and material, nuclear power is in the sights of the MPs who forced the Government to abandon plans to give Chinese tech firm Huawei a role in Britain’s 5G network.
In May, as EDF put forward its plans to start work on Sizewell C by the end of next year, MP Ian Duncan-Smith described it as “the next Huawei”.
“With Huawei, with Sizewell C, one by one you will see the scale of dependency we have created on China and we have to deal with it,” the former Conservative leader said.
Last year the US placed CGN on its “entity list”, meaning US companies are banned from doing business with it.
In 2016 the US government also accused it of spying to steal technology, something it strongly denies.
Against this political fallout is a potentially huge economic prize.
EDF says the project will create 25,000 jobs.
Suffolk’s Chamber of Commerce has described Sizewell C as a “game-changer” for local business, and a consortium of 32 firms and unions recently urged the Government to back it.
They said a “firm commitment” to its long term would bring “significant benefits to the UK’s low-carbon economic prosperity.”
Otherwise, they warned that thousands of opportunities for planned tasks would be lost, which would “seriously compromise the UK’s nuclear capability.”
Dr Paul Dorfman, of the University of London Energy Institute and founder of the Nuclear Consulting Group, said it’s hard to see who else would invest in Sizewell if the Chinese retired.
“The market will not touch nuclear power with a barge. You can only see a nuclear force being built under the command and in economies like China and Russia, and some atypical cases,” he said.
Simon Gray, CEO of the East England Energy Group, said: “There are other tactics to expand a financing plan; however, it would obviously take time, which we don’t have if we need it to reach 0 net until 2050.”
If China were to withdraw or be banned from participation, the government would have to strike a balance between the need for nuclear force in the UK and the “huge sums of cash it would have as a financial settlement option,” he added.
Professor Anthony Glees, a foreign security expert at Buckingham University, added: “In theory, Sizewell C can take place because CGN owns only a 20% stake. in practice, I doubt that EDF should move forward without the Chinese mattress. money if, as likely, the allocation exceeds.”
“Line in the sand”
Dr Dorfman said he and his colleagues at the university sought to “draw a line in the sand” regarding China’s involvement in British nuclear power plants.
Sizewell is one of 3 British nuclear plants in which China invests money, with Hinkley in Somerset and Bradwell B in Essex.
In Sizewell and Hinkley, he provided money, but with Bradwell B he sought to build the reactor himself and operate its technology.
Dr. Dorfman said giving China would be a “disaster.”
Professor Glees echoed the considerations and said existing political tensions with China pose “huge risks” to Sizewell C, and in Bradwell B.
“I don’t see how they can move forward, especially Bradwell,” he said.
“Nuclear force is a component of our critical national infrastructure and in a long-term clash with China, we would have given them the strength to turn off our lights.”
MORE: Will the Suffolk coast be a coronavirus victim while the government wastes the money?
The Government said ONR, the independent nuclear regulator, would oversee and assure robust personnel security measures for everyone who works on a nuclear site.
The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said that all UK nuclear projects are carried out under “strong and independent regulation” to cover the interests of the UK.
EDF says it needs Sizewell to be majority-owned through British investors, however, it’s up to the government who invests in the plant.
He said CGN was a monetary investor in Sizewell C, which offered 20% of the cash for the progression of the allocation in the plan-making process.
CGN will have to do it at the investment point you need to have in the structure phase, he added.
If the law is brought to the participation of CGN, it will apply, the heads of EDF said.
“Sizewell C does have CGN investments,” added a spokesman.
A CGN spokesman said it is in the UK to help deliver Hinkley, Sizewell and Bradwell under agreements reached by Britain and China in 2016.
He added: “We have already invested more than 3.8 billion pounds in the UK economy to create thousands of jobs.
“We are proud that our paintings support the UK economy and the government’s intention to achieve 0 emissions until 2050.”
Who else could fund it?
One option is for the Government to help finance the £20bn project, with something called a Regulated Asset Base (RAB) – where consumers would be charged a fixed price in exchange for the infrastructure.
Results of a Government consultation into this option are due to be published shortly.
But Dr Dorfman said this could be bad news for consumers.
“The problem is the public will be paying right from the moment concrete is poured – and the public will end up paying vast amounts of money to build nuclear. There is huge risk involved,” he added.
But the expert feels there are ways of pressing forward with nuclear power without China, for instance, building small modular reactors.
MORE: Opinion – ‘The Sizewell C plans are an insult to the people of Suffolk’
Neil O’Brien MP, of the Government’s China Research Group, said there were other providers who could help build a nuclear plant.
“To call only one, Hitachi is eager to reactivate your program if the situations are correct,” he added.
Therese Coffey, a member of Suffolk Coastal, said she understood any consideration her constituents had about China’s investment in Sizewell C, but added: “EDF’s goal is for CGN not to play any role in the design or operation of the new reactor.”
Anti-Sizewell activists say considerations about China are another explanation for why it’s not moving forward.
Alison Downes, of Stop Sizewell C, said: “China’s withdrawal would expose the fundamental problem with nuclear mega-projects; they are such high risk and so expensive that no-one is queuing up to put money in.”
Peter Wilkinson, of Together Against Sizewell C, added: “I wish the government would bite the bullet, say they’ve made a mistake, and pour all this money into a renewables programme creating tens of thousands of jobs.”
How tensions between the UK and China intensified
Britain’s relationship with the Communist nation has become more fractious in 2020. There are four major flashpoints:
Coronavirus: China’s anger over China’s handling of the coronavirus crisis must intensify.
The fatal virus is believed to have originated in China’s Hubei province, but its spread has been made public through the Chinese government.
Hong Kong: The UK this week suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong following the imposition of Beijing’s new national security law.
The UK says the new law goes against the “one country, two systems” policy that was supposed to protect Hong Kong’s freedoms when Britain handed the territory to China in 1997.
Uighur Muslims: There is growing fear of the remedy of the other Uighurs, a Muslim organization founded in China’s Xinjiang region. It is estimated that nearly one million other people have been placed in forced labour camps and reports of sterilized women are reported.
China denies sterilization and describes the camps as “re-education” facilities.
Huawei: Last week, the government announced that it would ban domestic cell phone providers from buying new Huawei 5G devices after 2020 and force them to remove all their 5G kit from their networks until 2027.
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