Why hand our nuclear industry to China?

Britain may come to regret signing a deal with the Chinese and French to build a new nuclear power station. Piper Terrett reports.

At last ministers have "found the courage to press the nuclear button", says Alistair Osborne in The Daily Telegraph. The government has signed a £16bn deal with French energy giant EDF (part-financed by the Chinese), to build the Hinkley C nuclear power plant. The plant will create 25,000 new construction jobs and power six million houses.

However, because we've lost the generation that knew how to build these plants, we're going "cap in hand to France and China". Considering that in 1956 we built the world's first major nuclear plant at Calder Hall, "it's hard to find a more literal symbol of lost power".

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Piper Terrett is a financial journalist and author. Piper graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1997 and worked for Germaine Greer and for Adam Faith’s Money Channel before embarking on a career in business journalism. 

She has worked for most top financial titles, including Investors Chronicle, Shares magazine, Yahoo! Finance and MSN Money. She lectures part-time at London Metropolitan University and is the author of four books.