Hitachi announced that it is scrapping plans to build two UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactors at the Wylfa Newydd nuclear site in north Wales, blaming the lack of a viable financing structure in an “increasingly severe” post-Covid investment environment.

The company suspended the project in January 2019 saying further time was needed to decide on a financing structure for the project and the conditions for building and operating the station.

At the time it said it had failed to reach a financing agreement and the project posed too great a commercial challenge.

Hitachi said it had now made the decision to abandon the project completely, but said it will coordinate with the UK government and relevant organisations regarding its cooperation as the owner of ABWR licence and the handling of the planned construction sites and other matters.