LONDON – Work at a new primary nuclear power plant in Britain will stop after Japan’s Hitachi company withdrew from the project.
Hitachi has stopped paintings at the Horizon project in Wylfa, on the Welsh island of Anglesey, and also stopped paintings somewhere else in England after not being able to agree on an investment with the UK government.
The company had been in talks with the UK government for years on how it could financially justify the project, adding through equity and debt investments. He suspended operations last year when an agreement might not be reached, and said the COVID-19 pandemic made a difficult investment.
“Hitachi took this resolution as it has been 20 months since the suspension and the investment environment has become increasingly complicated due to the impact of COVID-19,” the company said in a statement.
The suspension was noted as a blow to a British government facing Brexit at the end of the year, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government must demonstrate that it is open to industrial agreements with companies and countries outside the European Union.
“Horizon will now take steps to close all of its existing progression activities in an orderly manner, but will keep lines of communication with the government and other key long-term feature stakeholders open at our two sites,” Nuclear Horizon said in a statement.