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Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman and chief executive of the Japanese industrial giant, said the setbacks experienced by Hinkley’s developer EDF raised questions about how future plants including its Wylfa Newydd project are funded.

Hitachi’s subsidiary Horizon is planning to build a nuclear plant on Anglesey that is expected to start generating power by the mid-2020s.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Nakanishi revealed that he had expressed concerns about the expected costs of the project with Philip Hammond during the Foreign Secretary’s visit to Japan this month.

Horizon is in talks with the Government to ensure the Wylfa deal presents value for money for both sides.

Mr Nakanishi said Hitachi had set out “very fair conditions for the making of our investment”, but could only commit to a deal it believed was viable.

“Hinkley Point [raises questions] about what are the real solutions for setting up financial support,” he said.

“Nuclear power construction requires huge money … we need to arrange a financial plan for which the kind of money needed can be introduced.

“Some part is government endorsement, some is more preferable investment conditions from the part of the finance industry.” Mr Nakanishi said the challenges faced by Hinkley Point could also affect Horizon. “The DECC worries about the stability of the scheduled construction of the [Hinkley Point] nuclear power plant, so some of the conditions – the credit requirements – those kind of things may affect us.

“In order to set up the financial conditions [to build Hinkley], Chinese capital was introduced, but what the real result will be – we have a very serious concern about that.”

Asked if the firm might step back if it believed a viable deal was not on the table, Mr Nakanishi replied: “Yes”.

Horizon is in negotiations with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on issues such as the strike price, or the amount the Government will guarantee per unit of electricity produced, which will be key to attracting additional finance…….. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/12128405/Hinkley-Point-nuclear-fiasco-spooks-Hitachi-boss.html