UK goes nuclear with £14.2bn spend on Sizewell C allied to defence and AI data centre surge

The steering company has already signed £330 million in contracts with local businesses and will boost supply chains across the UK with 70 per cent of contracts predicted to go to 3,500 British suppliers – supporting new jobs in construction, welding and hospitality.   

The equivalent of around six million of today’s homes will be powered with clean, homegrown energy from Sizewell C. The initiative ends decades of dithering and delay, with the Government backing the builders in the drive for energy security and kick-starting economic growth.  

The announcement comes as the Government is set to confirm one of Europe’s first Small Modular Reactor programmes. This sits alongside record investment in R & D for fusion energy, worth over £2.5 billion over five years. Taken together with Sizewell C, this delivers the biggest nuclear building programme in a generation.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves, said:  “Today we are once again investing in Britain’s renewal, with the biggest nuclear building programme in a generation. This landmark decision is our Plan for Change in action.  

“We are creating thousands of jobs, kickstarting economic growth and putting more money in people’s pockets.”

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband added:  “We will not accept the status quo of failing to invest in the future and energy insecurity for our country.  We need new nuclear to deliver a golden age of clean energy abundance, because that is the only way to protect family finances, take back control of our energy and tackle the climate crisis.”  

Despite the UK’s strong nuclear legacy – opening the world’s first commercial nuclear power station in the 1950s - no new nuclear plant has opened in the UK since 1995, with all of the existing fleet except Sizewell B likely to be phased out by the early 2030s.  

Sizewell C was one of eight sites identified in 2009 by then-Energy Secretary Miliband as a potential site for new nuclear. However, the project was not fully funded in the 14 years that followed under subsequent Governments.  

The Government’s nuclear programme is now the most ambitious for a generation - once small modular reactors and Sizewell C come online in the 2030s, combined with Hinkley Point C, this will deliver more new nuclear to grid than over the previous half century combined. 

Great British Nuclear is expected to announce the outcome of its small modular reactor competition imminently - the first step towards the goal of driving down costs and unlocking private finance with a long-term ambition to bring forward one of the first SMR fleets in Europe.  

Small modular reactors are expected to power millions of homes with clean energy and help fuel power-hungry industries like AI data centres.   

The Government is also looking to provide a route for private sector-led advanced nuclear projects to be deployed in the UK, alongside investing £300m in developing the world’s first non-Russian supply of the advanced fuels needed to run them.   

Companies  will be able to work with the government to continue their development with potential investment from the National Wealth Fund.

The Government is also making a record investment in R & D for fusion energy, investing over £2.5 billion over five years. This includes progressing the STEP programme (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production), the world-leading fusion plant in Nottinghamshire, creating thousands of new jobs and with the potential to unlock limitless clean power.  

This builds on the UK’s global leadership to turbocharge economic growth in the Oxford-Cambridge corridor, while helping deliver the UK’s flagship programme to design and build a prototype fusion power station on the site of a former coal-fired plant.   

Defence 

To secure the UK as a leader in both civil and defence nuclear, the Government is also making continued long-term investment in our Defence Nuclear Enterprise and its industrial base, which is critical for national security while also being a significant generator of economic opportunities, jobs and growth across the entire country. 

Further investments in the defence nuclear sector include over £6bn over the SR period to enable a transformation in the capacity, capability and productivity of the UK's submarine industrial base, including at BAE Systems in Barrow and Rolls-Royce Submarines in Derby – to deliver the increase in the submarine production rate announced in the Strategic Defence Review. 

The Government is also embarking on a multi-decade, multi-billion redevelopment of HMNB Clyde, with an initial £250m of funding over three years, supporting jobs, skills and growth across the West of Scotland. 

The government will also invest over £420m of additional funding in Sheffield Forgemasters, securing 700 existing skilled jobs and creating over 900 new construction roles.