LONDON (AP) — Work on a major new nuclear power station in Britain was suspended after the contracted developer, Japan's Hitachi, said Thursday that it has been unable to agree on financing with the U.K. government.
Hitachi said Thursday that it was halting work already underway on the Horizon Project, which is located in Wylfa, Wales, on the island of Anglesey. It will also suspend work on another site located in England.
The company had been in talks with the British government for years about how it might support the project financially, including through stock and debt investments.
"I am very sorry to say that, despite the best efforts of everyone involved, we've not been able to reach an agreement to the satisfaction of all concerned," said Duncan Hawthorne, chief executive of Hitachi's nuclear business.
The suspension is a blow to the British government, which is in the midst of political chaos over Brexit and under pressure to show it is open to business deals with companies and countries beyond the European Union.
It also comes just two months after another Japanese company, Toshiba, decided to not go ahead with a power station it was looking to build in Britain.
The British government's business department said that "any deal needs to represent value for money" but remains committed to nuclear power as a source of energy, without suggesting how it might break the impasse with Hitachi.
Hitachi says it will continue to try to find adequate financing for building and operating Horizon Project. It has reportedly already spent over 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) on it, which would have been expected to cost around 15 billion pounds ($19.5 billion) on completion.
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