A new stg£16bn (€20.3bn) nuclear power station in the east of England has been given the final go-ahead.
The European Commission has voted in favour of the plant being built by the French company EDF Energy at Hinkley Point.
The plans had met with opposition at European Union level, with concerns that the funding was in breach of European law.
However in a vote today, EU Commissioners found that revised plans to subsidise the construction and operation of the power plant are in line with EU state aid rules.
Previously, An Taisce lost a legal challenge to the development, which is 240 kilometres from the Irish coast.
It had claimed that the views of Irish people were not taken into consideration, despite the nuclear power plant being nearer to the coast of Ireland than it is to Leeds.
They also pointed to the contrasting approach on consultation adopted by other countries - including Finland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic - who have contacted neighbouring countries in relation to their plans to develop nuclear power facilities.
Nuclear expert David Robert Grimes told Newstalk that while the plant will pose very little risk to health, the proposed design does have flaws:
“Generally what they do is they store it under liquid and they turn it into a glass like material, and to ingest that you’d have to go to an awful lot of effort involving breaking in and eating bits of glass, which I don’t see happening.
“The big problem with the design is that it’s an older design. It’s a generation three and really we should be looking at generation fours.”
The location of Hinkley Point | Image: Google Earth
Under the deal, the UK has agreed to significantly modify the terms of financing the project.
EU Commission Vice-President Joaquín Almunia, in charge of competition policy, said: "After the Commission's intervention, the UK measures in favour of Hinkley Point nuclear power station have been significantly modified, limiting any distortions of competition in the single market. These modifications will also achieve significant savings for UK taxpayers."
Under EU treaty rules, member states are free to determine their energy mix and the UK has decided to promote nuclear energy.
The EU says this decision is within its national competence. But cautions that when public money is spent to support companies, the Commission has the duty "to verify that this is done in line with the EU state aid rules, which aim to preserve competition in the single market."
The UK plans to ensure that the operator of the plant will receive stable revenues for a period of 35 years. The operator will also benefit from a state guarantee - covering any debt which the operator will seek on financial markets to fund the construction of the plant.
