Hitachi has said it will suspend work on a multi-billion-pound UK nuclear project because of rising costs. The decision puts thousands of jobs at risk if the £13bn plant at Wylfa Newydd in Anglesey, north Wales, is scrapped. The Japanese firm had been in talks with the UK government since June about funding for the project, which was being built by its Horizon subsidiary. The government said it had failed to agree terms with Hitachi. The nuclear industry said it was "disappointing". Hitachi said it would also suspend work on another site, in Oldbury in Gloucestershire, "until a solution can be found". About 9,000 workers had been expected to be involved in building the two nuclear reactors, which were due to be operational by the mid-2020s. Hitachi said the decision would cost it an estimated 300bn yen (£2.1bn) as "extraordinary losses". It said it was suspending the project "from the viewpoint of its economic rationality as a private enterprise". Hinkley, Moorside, Wylfa, Oldbury, Bradwell and Sizewell were identified as the sites for the most significant national wave of new nuclear power construction anywhere in the world. Of those six - only one is under construction, three have been abandoned and two face an uphill battle to get the green light. Under those circumstances you might think the government would be embarrassed that its energy policy was in disarray. But it's not. The collapse of the Wylfa and Oldbury projects today (following the abandonment of Moorside) is evidence of some new economic realities that have seen government enthusiasm for new nuclear fade. The first and most obvious is the cost of building the darn things. AFP.