In a field in a remote part of north-west Wales, a lone farmer cuts the grass, parcelling it up into hay bales which can be sold for a modest profit. His farm, and even the hill on which it sits, will soon be demolished by the Japanese-owned company Horizon — ground zero in an ambitious scheme to build one of a string of nuclear power stations across the UK.
在威爾士偏遠的西北角，一個農民正獨自在田裡割草，他把草捆成草垛，乾草垛可以賣掉，換取微薄的收入。他的農場乃至農場所在的那座山，都將很快被Horizon公司（日本人所有）夷平，修建一座核電站的宏偉計劃就將在這裡付諸實施。不僅在這裡，英國還計劃在全國各地修建一系列核電站。
Wylfa, on the island of Anglesey, is one of several sites designated for the plants, which could cost up to £100bn and, if all goes to plan, will replace the UK's ageing coal power stations. But despite the billions of pounds about to be poured into nuclear energy in Britain, only some is likely to stay in the UK. Of the six plants being planned, none will be owned by a British company.
位於安格爾西島(Anglesey)上的威爾法(Wylfa)是這些核電站的指定選址之一，這些核電站可能耗資高達1000億英鎊，如果一切按計劃進行，它們將取代英國日益老化的燃煤電站。儘管將有數十億英鎊投入英國的核能領域，可能只有一部分錢會留在英國。在計劃修建的6座核電站中，沒有一座是由英國公司所有的。
For nuclear power groups from France, China, the US and Japan, the UK's ambitious plans represent a ripe opportunity in an otherwise difficult global market. Following the meltdowns at the Fukushima plant in Japan in 2011, several countries, including Japan and Germany, scaled back or cancelled their nuclear energy plans.
英國雄心勃勃的計劃為來自法國、中國、美國和日本的核能集團提供了一個大好機會，而除英國以外的全球市場形勢嚴峻。在2011年日本福島(Fukushima)核事故後，包括日本和德國在內的多個國家削減或取消了它們的核能計劃。
The lack of British participation in such a massive domestic programme has drawn opposition. Critics say the project represents yet another example of the country's propensity to allow foreign companies and governments to profit from the UK's most sensitive — and lucrative — infrastructure projects.
如此大規模的國內計劃缺乏英國公司的參與，這招致了批評。批評人士表示，該項目代表著另一個例子，表明英國往往放任外國企業和政府從英國最敏感（也最有利可圖）的基礎設施項目中獲利。
That critique appears to be shared by some in the UK government. When Theresa May, the prime minister, unexpectedly delayed the £18bn plant planned for Hinkley Point in south-west England, allies said it was over concerns about the involvement of two Chinese state -backed companies alongside France's EDF, the state-backed utility. Some officials see the plant as a matter of national security, warning that the Chinese state could have the power to turn off a large chunk of Britain's electricity supply.
一些英國政府內部人士似乎也持有同樣的看法。當英國首相特里薩•梅(Theresa May)出人意料地推遲放行180億英鎊的英格蘭西南部欣克利角(Hinkley Point)核電站計劃時，支持者們表示，其原因是英國對國有的法國電力(EDF )以及兩家中國國有企業的參與有顧慮。一些英國官員認為該核電站事關國家安全，他們警告稱，這或許會讓中國政府擁有切斷英國很大一部分電力供應的能力。
Mrs May's decision has caused consternation in Beijing, where officials had been reassured by the previous government's unflagging support for the project. She will travel to China next month to steady bilateral relations, and is expected to make a decision over the project around the time of that trip.
梅的決定令中國方面感到惶恐，之前那屆英國政府對該項目的持續支持讓中國官員感到安心。梅下月將訪華，以穩定英中雙邊關係，預計她將在訪華前後就該項目作出決定。
It is not just the country's nuclear reactors that are being built, financed or purchased by overseas backers. The owners of Heathrow airport include Spain's Ferrovial as well as Chinese, Qatari and Singaporean sovereign wealth funds.
不只是英國的核反應堆由海外投資者建造、出資或買下。希斯羅機場的所有者包括西班牙的法羅里奧集團(Ferrovial)以及中國、卡塔爾和新加坡的主權財富基金。英國的大型火車和巴士運營商Arriva由德國鐵路(Deutsche Bahn)所有。英國前首相戴維•卡梅倫(David Cameron)曾試圖吸引中國支持者投資英國HS2高鐵。
Arriva, one of the country's biggest train and bus operators, is owned by Deutsche Bahn. David Cameron, the former prime minister, tried to attract investment in the HS2 high-speed rail line from Chinese backers.
日本製造
Made in Japan
在威爾法，初始土方作業中使用的吊車上的日立(Hitachi)品牌標識，表明日立在工程的每個階段都多麼不可或缺（日立是Horizon的東家）。整個核電站都將在日本的日立市建造，然後一塊塊運到威爾士北部。Horizon已將其設計遞交監管機構審批，在資金到位並完成必要的規劃申請後才會做出最終的開工決定。
At Wylfa, the Hitachi branding on the cranes involved in initial groundworks give a signal of how integral the Japanese company, which owns Horizon, is to every stage of the process. The entire station will be built in Hitachi City in Japan before being shipped over , piece by piece, to north Wales. Horizon has submitted its design to regulators for approval, and will only make the final decision to go ahead after it has funding in place and made the necessary planning applications.
在英國北部坎布里亞郡(Cumbria)的穆爾賽德(Moorside)，一家名為NuGen的公司正在通往塞拉菲爾德核電站(Sellafield)的道路附近開發另一座核電站。NuGen是日本東芝(Toshiba)與法國公用事業單位Engie共同組建的一家合資企業，Engie最大股東是法國政府。該核反應堆由美國工業企業西屋電氣(Westinghouse)設計，東芝持有西屋電氣多數股權。
At Moorside, in the northern county of Cumbria, a company called NuGen is developing another site over the road from Sellafield power station. NuGen is a joint venture of Japan's Toshiba and Engie, the French utility, whose biggest shareholder is the French state. Its reactor has been designed by Westinghouse, the US industrial company, most of which is owned by Toshiba.
如果梅擔心中國有能力關閉欣克利角核電站，她可能更擔心法國電力、中國廣核集團(China General Nuclear Power)以及中國核工業集團(China National Nuclear Corp)組成的財團在英格蘭東部的計劃。該財團將在薩福克郡(Suffolk)的賽茲韋爾(Sizewell)開發一座新的核電站，之後兩家中國企業還希望設計和建造位於埃塞克斯郡(Essex)布拉德韋爾( Bradwell)的那座核電站。
If Mrs May is worried about the Chinese being able to shut down Hinkley Point, she might be even more concerned with the plans of EDF, China General Nuclear Power and China National Nuclear Corp in eastern England. After the consortium develops another plant at Sizewell, in Suffolk, the Chinese groups are hoping to design and build the plant at Bradwell in Essex.
然而，英國別無選擇，只能把新的核電站外包給別的國家建造——英國輿論幾十年來反對新建核電站，其本國的技能儲備已枯竭。
Yet the UK was left with little choice but to source the new power stations from elsewhere, having seen its own skillbase dry up over decades of aversion to the construction of new reactors.
政治人士試圖把這變成件好事，稱此事展現了英國對外部投資多麼開放。10年前效力於工黨(Labour)內閣時支持核能、現任英國核工業協會(Nuclear Industry Association)主席的約翰•赫頓(John Hutton)表示：“政府決定不去選擇技術。我們的立場是任何具備可行技術的企業都能申請許可，而一個簡單的事實是，法國電力比其他任何企業都更適合來啟動這一複興。”
Politicians have sought to make a virtue of this, saying it shows how open the UK is to outside investment. John Hutton, a champion of nuclear power while serving in Labour cabinets in the previous decade and now chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association, says: “The government decided not to choose the technology. Our position was that anyone with a viable technology can submit it for licensing, and the simple truth was that EDF were in a better place than anyone else to start the renaissance.”
還有一些人辯稱，振興英國的核能行業有不同的方法。例如，在花費納稅人的錢修建核電站之前，政府大臣們可以要求企業就修建核電站競標，然後就價格以及帶給英國勞動力的好處進行談判。
Others argue that there was a different way to go about regenerating the country's nuclear power sector. Ministers could, for example, have asked companies to bid to build the stations and then negotiated on price and the benefit to the UK workforce, before building it at public expense.
諮詢機構Cornwall Energy分析師彼得•阿瑟頓(Peter Atherton)表示：“我們本可以製定一個由政府推動的核計劃，將成本降至最低。但我們所做的是跟大家說誰想建就可以建。這就是為什麼我們現在會看到這種混戰的局面。”
Peter Atherton, an analyst at Cornwall Energy, a consultancy, says: “We could have a government-driven nuclear programme to get it for the cheapest cost. But what we did instead was say whoever wants to build nuclear can do. That's why we 're seeing a free-for-all right now.”
還有一些人的批評更為嚴厲。一位核電行業高管告訴英國《金融時報》：“政府樂意看到我們的能源基礎設施變為國有——只要不是英國政府所有就好。”
Others are more critical. One nuclear industry executive told the Financial Times: “The government is happy for our energy infrastructure to be state-owned, as long as it is not the British state.”
工程浩大
Scaling up
在Horizon位於威爾士北部的核電站選址，這一事實帶來了獨特的挑戰，即該項目在9000公里以外的地方設計和建造。在該選址邊上，一個小型造船廠為已有45年曆史、即將退役的現有發電站提供服務。這個船廠將被改造成一個深水港，足以接收將從日本運來的600噸的反應堆。
At Horizon's site in north Wales, the fact the project is being designed and built more than 9,000km away brings unique challenges. On one edge of the site a small dockyard services the 45-year-old existing plant, which is being decommissioned. That dockyard will be transformed into a deepwater port able to receive the 600-tonne reactor unit when it arrives from Japan.
將這座600噸的反應堆從港口移出，將需要建造全世界最大的起重機：200米高的起重機將通過專門鋪設的鐵軌，運載反應堆穿過1000英畝的場地，這一過程可能要花費數週。
To move the 600-tonne reactor from the port will require the construction of the world's biggest crane: a 200 metre-high vehicle that will carry it on specially built rail tracks across the 1,000-acre site, a process which could take several weeks.
在巔峰期，這項工程將提供多達1萬個工作崗位，但是Horizon稱其中僅有2500個崗位可能從本地招聘。該公司正在討論租用附近一家計劃建設的度假村2/3的房間，用來為外地來的工人提供住宿。
The scale of the work will create up to 10,000 jobs at its peak but Horizon says only 2,500 of them are likely to be sourced locally. The company is in talks to hire two-thirds of a planned holiday village nearby to house workers from outside the area.
太多工作將在日本完成，Horizon希望日本政府可以提供擔保，幫助Horizon為項目融資。
So much of the work will be done in Japan that Horizon is hoping to receive a government guarantee from the Japanese state to help finance it.
在安格爾西島的當地社區，有人對這一點有一些顧慮，即該項目由外國企業主導。該島面積約715平方公里，有7萬人口，其中很多人是世代生活在這裡。這裡是整個英國講威爾士語的人口最集中的地區——超過一半的人口講威爾士語。
Among the local community on Anglesey, there is some concern over the sense that the project is being led by foreign companies. The island has an area of about 715 sq km and is home to 70,000 residents, many of whom have lived there for generations. It has one of the highest concentrations of Welsh speakers in the country, at more than 50 per cent.
“他們會把外面的人帶到這裡來嗎？”一輩子都生活在安格爾西的貝森•羅伯茨(Bethan Roberts)問，“這會改變這個地方——項目帶來的就業機會或許不會落到本地人頭上。”
“Are they going to bring people in from away?” asks Bethan Roberts, who has lived on Anglesey all her life. “It could change the area — maybe the jobs that will come will not go to locals.”
“我們認為這會威脅威爾士語，”當地反該核電站運動的一個組織者迪倫•摩根(Dylan Morgan)稱，“修建第一座威爾法核電站就曾導致講威爾士語的人口比例下滑，這並非巧合。”
“We see this as a threat to the Welsh language,” says Dylan Morgan, one of the organisers of the local campaign against the plant. “It is no coincidence that the building of the first Wylfa plant led to a reduction in the percentage of Welsh speakers,” he adds.
Horizon對這些顧慮十分敏感。核電站的負責人格雷格•埃文斯(Greg Evans)來自美國，但是他自2001年以來便一直生活在安格爾西，並且是當地足球俱樂部阿姆盧赫鎮(Amlwch Town)的主席。他稱：“目前安格爾西很多年輕人為了找到工作不得不離開。這是讓他們中的不少人能夠留下來的關鍵機會。”
Horizon is sensitive to these concerns. Greg Evans, its site director, comes from the US but has lived on Anglesey since 2001 and is chairman of Amlwch Town, the local football club. He says: “A lot of Anglesey's young people have to leave in order to get work at the moment. This is a key opportunity to allow quite a few of them to stay.”
在經歷過福島事件後的今天，英國推進核電站建設的意願，為法國電力、日立和東芝等公司的工程師提供了一個難得的工作機會。
For the likes of EDF, Hitachi and Toshiba, the UK's willingness to press ahead with building nuclear power plants after Fukushima presents a rare opportunity to provide work for their engineers.
各國際開發商在英國承接工程的另一個主要原因是，英國核能管理辦公室(Office for Nuclear Regulation)被視為全球同類機構中最嚴格的之一。所有核電站設計都必須得到該辦公室的批准。法國電力的中國合作夥伴在英國投資的主要動機之一就是，當他們在國際上推廣自己的“華龍一號”(Hualong One)設計時，他們將被視為質量過硬。
The other main reason for international developers to build in Britain is that the UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation, which must approve all plant designs, is seen as one of the most rigorous in the world. One of the main motivations for EDF's Chinese partners to invest in the UK is the stamp of quality they would gain as they market their Hualong One design internationally.
Horizon和NuGen面臨的主要障礙是，他們必須讓全球投資者相信他們的構想。兩家開發商都表示，他們將以低於180億英鎊（修建欣克利角核電站的花費）的造價建成自己的核電站，但是他們都不肯透露具體低多少。
The major hurdle for Horizon and NuGen is that they must sell their visions to global investors. Both developers say they will build their plants for less than the £18bn it will cost to build Hinkley Point, but they will not say by how much.
對於投資者來說，風險和回報都很顯著。修建核電站意味著要花費數十億英鎊，在核電站投入運營前不會獲得回報。但是，如果項目成功投入運營，企業將得到由政府擔保的長期豐厚回報。英國同意為欣克利角核電站生產的每單位電力向法國電力支付92.50英鎊，比目前的批發價高一倍多。
For investors, the risks and the rewards are significant. Building a nuclear plant means spending billions of pounds, with no hope of a return until it is operational. But if the scheme reaches that point, the returns are generous, long-term and underpinned by government guarantees. The UK has agreed to pay EDF £92.50 for every unit of electricity it produces at Hinkley Point, more than double the current wholesale price.
“一旦建成，基礎設施項目將提供長期、低風險、高收益的回報，”Cornwall Energy的阿瑟頓表示。
“Infrastructure provides long-term, low-risk, high-yield return — providing it gets built,” says Cornwall Energy's Mr Atherton.
促進進口
Import drivers
很多影響著英國對外投資態度的人士認為，上述事態都表明英國建設基礎設施的方式是健康的。
For many of those instrumental in shaping Britain's attitude to outside investment, this is all a sign of a healthy approach to building infrastructure.
前外交大臣馬爾科姆•里夫金德爵士(Sir Malcolm Rifkind)曾就讓中國企業幫助修建欣克利角核電站帶來的安全影響發出過警告。但是他支持該核電站項目所遵從的整體戰略：“我懷疑，限制允許參與這類項目的企業或國家的數量，可能會讓你無法用最少的錢辦最多的事。英國人從來都不這麼做事。”
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former foreign secretary, has warned about the security implications of letting Chinese groups help develop Hinkley Point. But he defends the wider strategy behind the nuclear programme: “I doubt you could get real value for money by limiting the number of companies or countries you allow to be involved in projects like this. That has never been the British approach.”
其他人認為，上述事態標誌著一種整體的失敗，這種失敗加劇了英國長期的工業衰退。
For others, it is a sign of a more general failure that has exacerbated the country's long-term industrial decline.
“我們現在同時使用著來自5家不同製造商的4種不同的技術，”阿瑟頓稱，“這種做法極大地減少了這些項目帶給英國供應鏈的機會。不同國家的建設方不得不完全從本國進口材料以降低風險。“
“We are now using four different technologies from five different manufacturers simultaneously,” says Mr Atherton. “By doing that you minimise the opportunities for the UK supply chain. The builders will have to reduce the risk by importing lock stock and barrel from their home countries.”
在安格爾西北部，當地人正準備迎接這一前景：他們所生活的這個島，有一部分區域要變得面目全非了。很多人在上世紀60年代曾參與原來那座核電站的建設，現在他們希望這些核反應堆能再次帶來就業和投資熱潮。
In north Anglesey, locals are preparing for part of their island to be changed unrecognisably. Many worked on the construction of the original plant in the 1960s, and are hoping the reactors will provide a similar burst of employment and investment.
傑蘭特•瓊斯(Geraint Jones)曾經在當地大學Coleg Menai教書，該學校得到日立的資金支持，幫助培訓核工程師。“我兒子在老的威爾法核電站工作。新核電站非常重要。我只希望他能在那裡找到新工作。”
Geraint Jones used to teach at Coleg Menai, a local college which is helping train nuclear engineers and is backed by Hitachi. “My son works at the old Wylfa plant. The new one is essential. I just hope he can find a new job there .”
韓碧如北京、Kana Inagaki東京補充報導
Additional reporting by Lucy Hornby in Beijing and Kana Inagaki in Tokyo
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