The UK will enter negotiations with France’s EDF for the construction of a new £20 billion ($27bn) nuclear power plant.
The long-anticipated move would help to replace the existing generation of atomic plants, all of which will be retired by the middle of the next decade, and help to shore up supplies of pollution-free electricity.
The plant in Suffolk, eastern England, could generate 3.2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to provide 7 per cent of the country’s energy needs.
"We're starting negotiations with EDF, which would be the developer at Sizewell C," Business Secretary Alok Sharma told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"What this is not is a green light on the construction, so what we will be doing is looking to see whether we can reach an investment decision in this parliament."
EDF is already building Britain's first new nuclear plant in more than two decades, Hinkley Point C, with backing from China's CGN.
CGN also owns a 20 per cent development phase stake in Sizewell C but recent media reports have suggested it could pull out.
The government said in September it was looking at funding options for the project.
It said on Monday the talks would be subject to reaching a value-for-money deal and all other relevant approvals before any final decision was taken on whether to proceed.
Britain's nuclear power plants can supply about 20 per cent of the country's electricity demand.
The government said it would "consider options to enable investment in at least one nuclear power station by the end of this parliament".
The announcement on Sizewell C was made alongside the government's white paper on cleaning up Britain's energy system.
