Nuclear fast-track on cards
THE government was today set to announce a suite of sites for fast-track nuclear development as it mapped out energy infrastructure plans following the launch of a powerful new planning commission.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband will announce a series of national policy statements which will include a list of sites deemed suitable for new nuclear developments. Under changes to the planning laws, the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) will be able to speed through the proposals for the new schemes if it decides they fit with the policy statements.
That would contrast with the six-year struggle to steer the Sizewell B nuclear power station through the planning process, and is likely to encourage foreign firms such as E.ON, RWE npower and EDF to produce a new fleet of UK power stations that could be up and running by 2017 before Britain faces an electricity crisis.
Alongside nuclear power, the Government will issue draft policy statements setting out the national need for new energy infrastructure including renewables, fossil fuels, gas and infrastructure, as well as an overarching energy statement.
Earlier this year Hartlepool was named by the Government as a potential site for a new nuclear power station, although it is unlikely to be built in the first wave. Other potential locations are Dungeness in Kent; Sizewell in Suffolk; Heysham in Lancashire; Sellafield in Cumbria; Braystones in Cumbria; Kirksanton in Cumbria; Wylfa Peninsula in Anglesey; Oldbury in Gloucestershire; Hinkley Point in Somerset and Bradwell in Essex.
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