Beijing is
planning to invest in two major nuclear power plant projects in a
multi-billion pound contract that would give them access to Britain's
strategic energy network.
No formal agreement between China
and the UK has yet been signed, but energy experts have spoken out
about the potential for "catastrophe" if the Chinese are given the green
light to invest.
Security concerns centre on
access to IT systems, with analysts warning the UK would be left
vulnerable if relations continue sour to China over the coming years.
Britain's
friendship with the communist state was strained recently over the Tata
steel crisis with China putting a highly punitive tax on the metal
produced in south Wales to further damage the UK industry.
But experts say a nuclear power deal would put the UK at the mercy of Beijing.
Dr
Paul Dorfman, an advisor to the British Government on nuclear security
and a senior research fellow at UCL's Energy Institute, said: "You don't
want to let the Chinese into complex, strategic, national energy
infrastructure and you certainly don't want them anywhere near nuclear.
"There are some real security issues here."
Fears have been raised about "backdoors" in IT technology that could be exploited by the Chinese government or rogue hackers.
Malicious
IT breaches could allow data to be extracted or inserted into complex
computer systems, allowing Beijing to circumvent British control of a
nuclear plant and shut it down.
GCHQ will be on
standby to protect the UK from the threat of a cyber attack if the
Chinese are allowed to build at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Bradwell
in Essex.
Some argue that
the Chinese would not launch an attack on their own power station, but
the secretive communist state has a long history of online espionage.
The
Chinese are hoping to invest in both Hinkley and Bradwell and the
Chancellor has already announced a £2bn government guarantee to secure
Chinese funding for the power station, which is being jointly built with
French energy giant EDF.
A final decision on expanding the power plant is expected next month.
But the
Government has already come in for criticism that the deal involves
purchasing electricity at £92.50 per megawatt hour over a 35 year
period, more than double the current price.
George Osborne's handling of the negotiations have also been attacked, with Dr Dorfman questioning his deal-making skills.
If
a deal does go ahead, Hinkley is not due to come online until 2025 at
the earliest after a string of setbacks and costly delays.
Were a deal to be
signed with the Chinese, Britain would have to maintain friendly
relations with the communist regime for at least 10 years just to get
the reactor up and running.
Dr Dorfman said
Britain's energy infrastructure would then be at the mercy of the
Chinese government for decades after that, throughout the lifetime of
the plant.
He told Express.co.uk the UK was the
only developed country that had "kowtowed" to pressure from China and
was pressing ahead with the controversial purchase of the latest batch
of costly reactors.
He added: "The Chinese are quite tough cookies, they are not very friendly.
"It
is one thing to do business with them, everyone wants to do business
with China, that is fine, but there is no developed country that would
go anywhere near China for critical energy infrastructure.
"The
Americans won't even let them into transport technology. We are the
only country that has kowtowed, completely kowtowed to this, and there
are live security issues.
"The Government has
come back saying 'don't worry GCHQ [the UK intelligence service] will
look at it and everything will be fine, it will be ok', but nobody
believes it."
Caroline Baylon, a
cyber security specialist at the Chatham House think tank, said she
believes the current deal could end badly for Britain.
She
said: "If the international situation changes, the UK may find itself
in a tricky spot if this Chinese deal goes through. Today's alliances
are not tomorrow's alliances."
A spokesperson
for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “The UK has one of
the strongest levels of nuclear regulation in the world, with the
Office for Nuclear Regulation monitoring sites on a regular basis to
ensure that stringent levels of security and safety are maintained and
to protect sensitive nuclear information.
“Any
nuclear power station built in the UK complies with our robust nuclear
regulations, and all employees and contractors in the civil nuclear
industry are subject to rigorous personnel security and vetting
arrangements.”