Hitachi Reaffirms Intention to Continue U.K. N-Reactor Project

May 29, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese machinery giant Hitachi Ltd. at a board meeting on Monday reaffirmed its intention to go ahead with its nuclear power reactor construction project in Britain.

Hitachi highly rates the British government's proposal to offer some 2 trillion yen in low-interest loans to help the firm cover nearly 3 trillion yen of total project costs, informed sources said.

The company has asked the British side for financial assistance for the reactor construction while signaling its stance of canceling the project unless enough profitability is foreseen.

The project calls for building two reactors on the British island of Anglesey. Horizon Nuclear Power Ltd., a wholly owned British subsidiary of Hitachi, is slated to undertake the project. Construction is seen beginning in 2020, with Hitachi aiming to launch the operations of the two reactors in the early 2020s.

The British government is reported to have offered to guarantee the repayment of all of the proposed 2-trillion-yen loans to be extended by British financial institutions to the Hitachi side.

Talks are under way for the British public and private sectors to put up about 300 billion yen out of envisaged fresh investment worth some 900 billion yen in Horizon Nuclear Power, which became a Hitachi unit in 2012.

Hitachi plans to recover the investment in the project with revenue from sales of electricity to be produced by the planned nuclear reactors.

In this regard, Hitachi has asked the British government to guarantee that the electricity is bought at a high enough price. But a person familiar with the matter said that there is a gap between the two sides. Jiji Press