Nuclear power station proposals mooted as French move in

French power giant EDF has confirmed that it wants to locate and build two pairs of 1-6 gigawatt nuclear power reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk where British Energy (BE) has existing atomic power stations.

That news has surfaced on the back of EDF's multi-billion pound takeover bid for BE, just announced, which looks set to kick-start the administration's plans for a nuclear renaissance. The Government has a significant stake in BE and has welcomed EDF’s move to acquire the UK generator.

As part of the deal – yet to be signed, sealed and delivered – EDF has agreed to sell land at three possible other current BE nuclear sites to other potential new-build-nuclear developers. The land in question would be at Bradwell in Essex, Dungeness in Kent and Heysham in Lancashire.

The Government's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has recently announced it will offer for sale land it owns at Bradwell, Wylfa (on Anglesey in North Wales) and at Oldbury in Gloucestershire as potential candidate sites for new nuclear stations.

Any possible sites would be assessed by Whitehall as part of a Strategic Site Assessment which will ultimately determine which locations nominated by developers should be included in a promised Nuclear National Policy Statement for planning permission under the terms of the new regime associated with the creation of the Infrastructure Planning Commission.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "New nuclear is becoming a reality. This deal is good value for the taxpayer and a significant step towards the construction of a new generation of stations to power the country."

Business secretary John Hutton commented: "Nuclear has the clear potential to play a central role in giving our country a diverse energy mix. It will be indispensable for our long term energy security."

He added: "Our ambition is to have more than one nuclear operator and so to accelerate the building of new nuclear power stations... a number of sites could be made available for others to play a part."

If EDF's plans go head the French company has claimed its new nuclear stations, the first to be built in the UK for well over two decades, could be commissioned by 2017.

Read the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory reform news release.

Roger Milne

25 September 2008