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Business|How Britain Got Investors to Line Up for Nuclear Power
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/business/britain-nuclear-power-plant-sizewell.html
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In the flatlands of Eastern England, truck after truck rolls through the country lanes. Temporary fences block off farmers’ fields. Archaeologists sift for artifacts.
The source of the disruption is a vast gash in the landscape near the town of Leiston running through hills to a pebbly beach on the North Sea.
A giant nuclear power station called Sizewell C, whose potential construction has loomed over the region for years, is now finally underway. By around 2040, Sizewell C, which will consist of two large reactors, is expected to produce enough electricity to light up six million homes.
An activist group called Stop Sizewell C, led by Alison Downes, has campaigned vigorously against the plant, but government backing made it hard to stop. It will sit on the beach next to a striking blue building with a white dome that houses Sizewell B, the last nuclear power station built in Britain, a project that was completed in 1995.
The stepped-up activity is a milestone for Julia Pyke, Sizewell’s joint managing director and the public face of the giant project.
Ms. Pyke left the London law firm Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, where she was a co-head of the firm’s power practice, in 2017 to help assemble the financial package that pushed Sizewell C over the line. The estimated price tag is 38 billion pounds, or about $51 billion.
