E.ON, the German owner of British energy supplier Powergen, French nuclear power group Areva and engineering major Siemens will co-operate in the construction of two new-generation nuclear power plants in the UK.
 
The plants would use Areva's pressurised water reactor (EPR) with a capacity of 1,600 megawatts and Siemens will build the conventional parts of the nuclear plant, including the turbines.

E.ON and Areva will also collaborate on further developing the SWR1000 boiling-water reactor in the 1,250MW range.

The new power plants will have an electricity-generating capacity in the intermediate range.

The EPR and SWR reactors are regarded as offering maximum safety for use in nuclear power generation.

Under a long-term service and maintenance partnership with Areva for new and existing nuclear plants, E.ON will also gain access to the latest nuclear and power engineering.

E.ON is planning to reduce power consumption at its non-energy generating business in a bid to shrink its corporate carbon emissions, and save money on operational costs in the process.

The three companies also intend to collaborate on R&D and for mutual exchange of experts to ensure efficiency in the common development programme.

The UK government gave the go-ahead for a new generation of nuclear plants earlier this year although no decision has been made on who will build them.

Britain is going in for construction of new atomic power plants to lessen its dependency on fossil fuels as part of the environmental programme. It is still unclear as to where the new nuclear facilities will be built.

German companies like Siemens continue to export sophisticated nuclear technology even as the German government is pressing ahead with a gradual phase-out of nuclear energy by 2021.