Potential and likely sites to serve as the eleven new nuclear power stations in England and Whales have been named this morning, all of which have historic links to the nuclear industry.
– By Abby Gessner –
Nine of the identified locations by the Government have been previous homes to nuclear reactors, and the remaining two are close to the former Sellafield reactor site in Cumbria, according to the Times Online.
The list consists of Dungeness in Kent; Sizewell in Suffolk; Hartlepool in Cleveland; Wylfa Peninsula in Anglesey; Heysham in Lancashire; Oldbury in Gloucestershire; Bradwell in Essex; Hinkley Point in Somerset; and Sellafield, Braystones and Kirksanton in Cumbria.
The Government plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations to maintain Britain's ability to generate its own energy when existing nuclear and coal-fired stations are shut down.
The sites have been nominated by the energy companies EDF, E.ON and RWE, as well as the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which owns some of the land, and have been initially approved by the Government. None is in Northern Ireland or Scotland, where planning is a devolved issue.
Chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, Keith Parker, hailed the announcement as tangible proof of progress toward Britain's future energy security, with the first of the next generation of nuclear plants on course for the end of 2017.