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Government welcomes sale of British Energy

07 January 2009

EDF's completed purchase of British Energy has been welcomed by the government which described it as a "significant step".

The £12.5 million sale was finalised yesterday and will help the French energy company move forward in its plans to build four new nuclear reactors in the UK.

Energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband said that nuclear power should be "embraced" considering the challenges of climate change and energy security.

"In addition to the important investment made by EDF, our ambition is to have more than one firm building and operating nuclear power stations in the UK," he said.

"There are strong signals of interest in this from the power industry and we will continue to work with stakeholders to bring about the conditions that can make that possible."

Lord Mandelson, business secretary, added that the deal served to "open the way for new nuclear build" and should "provide many billions of pounds more opportunity for the UK supply chain".

European competition regulators gave the sale the green-light back in December with conditions attached.

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Author: Administrator User