REGENERATION organisations West Lakes Renaissance and Cumbria Vision have welcomed the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) announcement that it expects to nominate land adjacent to Sellafield as a potential site for nuclear new build.

During a visit to Sellafield by Prime Minister Gordon Brown today (Friday, January 23), the NDA said it expects to nominate its surplus land near Sellafield for consideration under the Government’s Strategic Siting Assessment (SSA) process, which identifies suitable sites for nuclear new build. The move is designed to enhance the value of the land and help generate income to help fund the UK’s vast decommissioning process.

Urban Regeneration Company West Lakes Renaissance (WLR) has been working closely with the NDA and partners to prepare the nomination, which will be submitted to the Department of Environment and Climate Change in mid 2009. WLR, economic development agency Cumbria Vision and partners* hope to attract a utility company to build one, possibly two new reactors on the land.

Nuclear new build is a key component of the Britain’s Energy Coast Masterplan™** – a £2 billion package of regeneration projects which aims to establish West Cumbria as a UK hub for low carbon and renewable energy production. The Masterplan aims to build on the area’s nuclear strengths and diversify into other forms of energy production, such as tidal, wave and biomass; in the process creating new jobs and business opportunities while at the same time assisting the UK’s response to the twin challenge of climate change and energy security.

Rosie Mathisen, Nuclear Opportunities Director at West Lakes Renaissance, said: “We welcome today’s announcement, which marks another significant step in our push to secure nuclear new build in West Cumbria and further strengthen the area’s reputation as a global leader in the nuclear industry.

“We have been hard at work for the past 18 months to build a strong case for new build and to reach this stage is a great example of local, regional and national organisations from the public and private sector, pulling together with a common purpose. The work that has been carried out has really helped to increase the value of the land, which will ultimately benefit the taxpayer and in turn the communities and businesses of West Cumbria.”

Roger Liddle, Chairman of Cumbria Vision, added: “This is a really exciting development for West Cumbria and we welcome the NDA’s continued commitment towards helping deliver the Britain’s Energy Coast™ vision – a once in a generation opportunity to secure the long term economic prosperity of this area.

“Partners have generated strong interest from utility companies in nuclear new build in West Cumbria by stressing the area’s strengths, in particular its superb skills base and cluster of nuclear related businesses. Our focus is now on improving the connection to the national grid, which is not only important to nuclear new build but also to supporting a thriving hub of renewable energy businesses the Britain’s Energy Coast™ Masterplan aspires to create. This is our major challenge and one that we will only overcome by working together as a County.”

The need for a 400kV connection to the National Grid was identified as the major challenge to nuclear new build in a study carried out by consultants Amec to help inform the nomination process. However, the study also revealed several strengths which make West Cumbria an attractive proposition to those utility companies seeking to build a new generation of nuclear power stations.

These included a high concentration of skills and expertise, with Sellafield being home to around 50 per cent of the UK’s civil nuclear workforce and strong community and local Government support for the industry. There is also enough reprocessed fuel currently in storage at Sellafield, to power two reactors for up to 60 years, making the site “self sustainable” and saving more than £2 billion. Using reprocessed fuel could generate up to £20 billion inward investment without the need for Government funding and avoid the creation of 0.5 billion tonnes of CO2.