Cumbria consultation
West Cumbria is the location of Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant and a former nuclear power station. It has an experienced local workforce and a strong nuclear heritage.
This makes it a potentially strong location for a new nuclear power plant which would deliver much needed, low carbon, power generation. West Lakes Renaissance, the Urban Regeneration Company for Furness and West Cumbria, has set out its vision of the area to be the ‘Energy Coast’, because of its capacity to generate new low carbon electricity.
Crucially, as well as a skilled workforce and a large amount of nuclear infrastructure, West Cumbria has excellent access to sea water for cooling and appropriate geology for a new nuclear station.
RWE npower has an ambition to develop a new nuclear power station in the area and has bought land on the Cumbrian coast for possible power generation. At present, no decision has been made to develop on either location, and a very long process and extensive investigation and consultation would take place before plans to develop any site would be finalised.
As part of these ambitions, we have nominated these two sites into the Government’s Strategic Siting Assessment (SSA) process. This process will identify whether they are potentially suitable for a new station.
RWE npower’s sites
Both of RWE npower’s potential sites in Cumbria have coastal access and are currently farmland. One site is situated to the north of the hamlet of Braystones, and south west of the A595 and the other is situated south west of Kirksanton.
Strategic Siting Assessment and planning timeline
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has set out this process to be followed in order to develop a new nuclear power station.
31 March 2009 Deadline for nomination of sites to be considered within the Strategic Siting Assessment process. |
15 April 2009 A list of nominated sites was published by the Government. At this stage the public was given one month to give initial comments, prior to consultation later in the year. |
Summer/Autumn 2009 The Government assessed each location to decide if they met a number of suitability criteria. |
9 November 2009 Sites assessed as potentially suitable were listed on the draft Nuclear National Policy Statement published on 9 November 2009. The list, announced by Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, contained ten locations including RWE npower’s sites in Cumbria and Horizon Nuclear Power’s interests at Oldbury-on-Severn and Wylfa. In November the Government began consulting the public on the draft Nuclear National Policy Statement. The consultation includes a series of public meetings and exhibitions and the public will have an opportunity to feed back views at this point. |
22 February 2010 The consultation closed and Government is now considering the responses received. Parliament will then examine the proposals. The draft Nuclear National Policy Statement will be amended as needed and the list of sites will be finalised. |
Once the Nuclear National Policy Statement is finalised Developers may apply to the Infrastructure Planning Commission for planning permission to develop a new nuclear power station. Before making an application a developer would be expected to conduct an extensive impact assessment and consultation with affected communities. It is anticipated that the first new nuclear power stations would be generating by approximately 2020. |
More information on the Government’s Strategic Siting Assessment process can be found on the DECC website.
A commitment to consultation
With the Nuclear National Policy Statement yet to be finalised, our plans for Cumbria are at an early stage. However, we recognise that any major project raises issues, questions and concerns for local people, organisations and their political representatives. We are committed to consulting properly before making any firm decisions.
Although we can’t promise any significant announcements in the near future, we recognise the importance of talking with local people throughout this process. Our engagement began in March 2009 with three drop-in information sessions in Kirksanton, Millom and Beckermet, which provided an opportunity for local people to meet RWE npower, ask about our plans for the area, about our nuclear industry experience, and give initial feedback. Since then we have written to people in West Cumbria on a number of occasions, updating them on the projects.
As soon as we possibly can we will provide more information about how we intend to progress in Cumbria and what that will mean for local people. Nothing will happen without first informing and consulting local people.
We have put in place an information line and e-mail address which can be used to ask us questions and receive updates on what we are proposing. If you have any questions please email us or leave a message and your details on our information line and we will respond.
RWE npower Cumbria
T0800 988 9147
E-Mail to RWE npower Cumbria