Chinese companies have stepped up their interest in building the UK’s new generation of nuclear reactors, with up to five reactors being proposed, and an investment of over

  British officials are talking to Chinese companies about plans that could see up to five reactors being built at cost of $54bn, reports the Guardian.

  Officials from China's nuclear industry have been in high-level talks with ministers and officials at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) this week.

Interested parties include China National Nuclear Power Corporation (CNNPC) and the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute (SNERDI), an arm of the huge China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).

A UK utility would be expected to operate the plants in a move set to overcome political and public resistance to the plans.

The first part of the plan involves CNNC and another state-owned firm, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation, bidding in two separate groups against each other for a stake in the Horizon consortium, which wants to construct new atomic plants at Wylfa in Wales and Oldbury in Gloucestershire.

The DECC, citing commercial confidentiality, was unwilling to comment on whether it had met Chinese officials this week.

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