Sellafield to host 3.5-gigawatt nuclear station

A new nuclear power station is planned to be built at Sellafield after a consortium of energy companies bought a land earmarked for the development. The construction of the 3.5-gigawatt nuclear power plant will start by 2015. Ed Miliband, UK’s Energy and Climate Change Secretary, said that the new nuclear plant could provide power to an equivalent of 26 million homes in the country.

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), along with the Spanish energy company Iberdrola and French power firm GDF Suez, will pay about £70 million for the new construction site, according to the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The contract will involve an initial payment of £19.5 million for the 470-acre land, followed by an additional £50.5 million in the next six years.

A released statement from the consortium said that the group will participate in the UK’s government new nuclear building plan. It also added that the energy companies will help replace the country’s ageing coal and nuclear power plants, which are close to decommissioning.

The Sellafield property deal followed similar sales of NDA lands in Anglesey, Gloucestershire and Essex. John Clarke, Commercial Director of NDA, informed that the combined sales of lands would generate £450 million, which will be used by the organization to clean up and decommission old nuclear energy plants.

Nuclear energy also plays a part in the UK government’s strategies to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 2020. Alistair Phillips-Davies, Energy Supply Director of SSE, asserted that nuclear energy is an effective power source and can help reduce the production of harmful greenhouse gases.