Hitachi to decide fate of UK nuclear plant in Wales

The Japanese conglomerate Hitachi looks certain to cancel its plans for £16bn nuclear power station in Wales, leaving Britain’s ambitions for a nuclear renaissance in tatters.

Japanese media reports say Hitachi will suspend work on its Horizon division's Wylfa Newydd plant this week.

The company says no formal decision has yet been made.

But if the project is scrapped, it will cost 400 jobs and leave the Hinkley Point power station in Somerset as the only new UK reactor still being built.

The company has spent nearly £2bn on the planned Wylfa power station on Anglesey, which would have powered around 5m homes.

Another Japanese giant, Toshiba, scrapped a nuclear plant in Cumbria just two months ago after failing to find a buyer for the ailing project.

Withdrawal by Hitachi would be a major blow to the UK’s plans to replace dirty coal and ageing reactors with new nuclear power plants, and heap pressure on ministers to consider other large-scale alternatives such as offshore wind farms.

It would also mark an end to Japan’s hopes of exporting its nuclear technology around the world.

The government continues to stress that it is still in talks with Hitachi about Wylfa.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said: "Negotiations with Hitachi on agreeing on a deal that provides value for money for consumers and taxpayers on the Wylfa project are ongoing.

"They are commercially sensitive and we do not comment on speculation."

The latest developments are likely to force the government to sweeten future nuclear plant deals for potential investors, in what one expert has called a "desperate leap in the dark".

Energy Secretary Greg Clark has already suggested that regulated asset base (RAB) funding could be used for nuclear projects in future.