After being personally lobbied by Emmanuel Macron, a British nuclear startup dropped its plans to build a groundbreaking power plant in Cumbria in favor of investing £4bn instead in France.
Newcleo is based in London and is developing an advanced modular reactor, also known as a mini-nuclear power plant. This type of mini-nuclear power plant will be using nuclear waste to fuel.
The company wanted to tap into Sellafield ‘s huge stockpile of waste. It planned to invest £2bn to build a waste reprocessing plant and AMR, which would have created 500 jobs.
The company was planning to build a similar-sized facility in France.
Stefano Buono is the Newcleo CEO, and the founder of the company. He said that the company had dropped its UK plans because the government has ruled out allowing private companies to access the Sellafield nuclear stockpile as part of a “roadmap” for the industry published earlier this month.
Newcleo, however, is instead planning a larger development in an undisclosed area of southern France where it plans to spend £4bn, and create approximately 1,000 jobs.
It will also buy nuclear waste from the French state energy giant EDF.
The company is currently also in the middle a €1bn fundraising (£860m).
This decision follows the refusal of the company to participate in the UK’s mini-nuclear reactor design competition .
In comparison, France enthusiastically supported Newcleo. President Macron lobbied Mr Buono for investment in numerous face-to-face meeting.
Newcleo was never offered a meeting with the British Prime Minister, despite being invited to the “Choose France Business Summit” at Versailles last year.
The Telegraph quoted Mr Buono as saying: “Our initial plan was to use a factory in France and another in the UK.
“Now we will double our capacity in France and we do not invest in the UK.”
He said that the company had originally hoped to pioneer their technology in Britain, but added, “We were not even able to locate the site within two years. So we decided to accept France’s offer.”
We can continue with our business model.
Newcleo’s decision to build their first plant abroad is a result of growing frustration in the British nuclear sector over the slow progress made by the government towards finding sites for new power stations.
Since Brexit, President Macron has launched a charm campaign in order to entice companies to cross the Channel.
This week he was the sole G7 leader who attended the World Economic Forum, held in Davos, Switzerland. He also rolled out the carpet for top businessmen, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and JP Morgan Banker Jamie Dimon, at his annual Choose France Event.
The summit last year resulted in some major deals. ProLogium, a Taiwanese battery manufacturer, announced plans to build a €5.2bn factory at the Port of Dunkirk, and Verkor a French battery company pledged a €1.6bn factory.
Six SMR developers, including Rolls-Royce, have been selected for support in the UK as part of a competition organized by Great British Nuclear.
Mr Buono claims that Newcleo wasn’t considered due to the AMR cooling system with its lead and the unusual fuel.
The novel design of the company would operate on processed plutonium and help countries like the UK to dispose of dangerous waste that is costly to manage.
The UK has accumulated 140 tonnes of plutonium at Sellafield – it is the largest stockpile in the world – due to historic nuclear weapons programs and abandoned attempts to develop fast breeding reactors, which would have used the material as fuel.
The Cumbrian site is undergoing a massive effort to store the waste safely, but Mr Buono argues that it could be better used as reactor fuel.
In 2017, the entrepreneur reportedly made $420 million by selling the cancer treatment developer AAA, to Novartis, for $3.9bn.
The Agnelli family is the industrialists who own Fiat and Ferrari.
Later this year, the French government will likely confirm an agreement with Newcleo.
A spokesperson for the government said: “While it is not possible to comment on commercial decisions we have outlined our nuclear roadmap which outlines the largest expansion of nuclear in the last 70 years, and our goal to achieve nuclear power meeting up to 25% of UK energy needs by 2050.
This will ensure that the UK remains one the best places to invest in nuclear energy, building on the Great British Nuclear launch, the commitment of PS1.2bn in Sizewell C investment, the first direct support of a nuclear program in over 30 year, and the SMR Competition which aims to become the fastest in the World.