The measure could further strain diplomatic ties in the United Kingdom and China, which are already strained over issues such as the treatment of Uighurs in Hong Kong or Xinjiang. The PA agency, citing a government source that confirmed information reported by the Financial Times, states that members of the government are considering blocking all CGN participation in British nuclear power. The group may be excluded from the Sizewell project (East of England), in which it participates with the EDF as a minority partner, and Bradwell (South-East), less advanced but on which it is alone in the maneuver. Equipped with technology. On the other hand, the Hinkley Point borne by EDF and CGN will not be related, as the project is already well underway.
It is the only nuclear power plant under construction in the country and should be operational in a few years.
Asked by AFP, the British Department for Enterprise, Energy and Industrial Strategy has neither confirmed nor denied press information. A spokesperson is satisfied to point out that “all nuclear projects in the United Kingdom are subject to strong and independent regulation” in particular to respect “the requirements of national security, to protect our interests”. For its part, the French giant’s British subsidiary EDF Energy declined to comment.
Going without CGN could force London to find other nuclear partners, even as British ambitions in nuclear were thwarted with the abandonment of its nuclear power plant project by Japanese industrial conglomerate Hitachi last year Was. Wales. Nuclear supplies about 20% of the country’s electricity and the government wants to maintain this share to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. There are currently 15 reactors at 8 sites in the UK.
A year after the government’s decision to exclude equipment maker Huawei from 5G networks, China’s influence in British economic affairs is regularly criticized by Conservative lawmakers. In early July, concerns focused on the acquisition by a Chinese conglomerate of Welsh Newport Wafer Fab, the largest British manufacturer of semiconductors.
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