Ashurst, Clifford Chance and Herbert Smith Freehills have represented various parties in a Franco-Chinese consortium that won the deal to build the $23 billion (18 billion pounds) Hinkley Point C, the UK’s first new nuclear power station in over 20 years.

The project has been in the works for more than a decade and is the first in a series of new nuclear projects in Britain.

The consortium includes China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), represented by an Ashurst team led by partners Robert Ogilvy Watson and David Wadham, and France-based EDF, advised by Clifford Chance and Herbert Smith Freehills. The CC team was led by partner John Wilkins, while the HSF team was led by partner Julia Pyke.

CGN is understood to be paying a third of the total cost of the deal. The CGN-EDF consortium has also signed suite of agreements with the British government related to the building of the Sizewell C and Bradwell B projects. 

Hinkley Point C will provide around 7 percent of Britain’s electricity, filling the gap to be left by the closing of the country’s coal plants in 2025, when the plant is due to begin generating energy. The nuclear power industry hopes it will reinvigorate the market following the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.