Britain will commit £16.7 billion ($22.5 billion) to nuclear power projects as the country shifts away from fossil fuels.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said this on Tuesday.

Ms Reeves signed off on £14.2 billion of investment to build the new Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk, England.

Rolls-Royce had been named as the preferred bidder to build small modular reactors in a programme backed by £2.5 billion of taxpayers’ cash.

Officials hoped SMRs would be cheaper and quicker to build than traditional power plants, and projects could be connected to the grid by the mid-2030s.

Ms Reeves said, “The UK is back where it belongs, taking the lead in the technologies of tomorrow with Rolls-Royce SMR as the preferred partner for this journey.”

The SMR project could support up to 3,000 new skilled jobs and power the equivalent of around three million homes.

A first site is expected to be allocated later this year by state-owned Great British Energy Nuclear.

Tuesday’s announcement of Rolls-Royce as the preferred bidder came after the government confirmed financial support for Sizewell C.

Energy secretary Ed Miliband said new nuclear power capacity was needed to deliver a “golden age of clean energy abundance.”

Trade unions welcomed the Sizewell move, which the treasury said would go towards creating 10,000 jobs, including 1,500 apprenticeships.

But the head of a campaign group opposing the plant criticised the decision to commit the funding, saying it was still not clear what the total cost would be.

Nuclear plants were seen as increasingly important electricity sources as the government tried to decarbonise Britain’s grid by 2030, replacing fossil fuels with green power.

The last time Britain completed one was in 1987, which was the Sizewell B plant in Suffolk.

Hinkley Point C, in Somerset, is under construction and is expected to produce enough power for about six million homes when it opens, but that may not be until 2031.

(dpa/NAN)