Moorside Nuclear Power Station

Moorside nuclear power station
Location of Moorside nuclear power station in Cumbria
Country	United Kingdom
Location	Sellafield, Cumbria
Coordinates
Status	Proposed
Construction cost	£10 billion
Owner(s)	NuGen
Operator(s)	Engie
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	AP1000 PWR
Reactor supplier	Westinghouse
Power generation
Units planned	3
Nameplate capacity	3,400 MW
Website www.nugeneration.com/moorside.html

Moorside nuclear power station is a proposal to build three AP1000 nuclear plants near Sellafield, in Cumbria, United Kingdom. The plan by NuGeneration, which is the British subsidiary of Toshiba-owned Westinghouse Electric Company, has the station coming online from 2024 with 3.4GW of new nuclear capacity. Work up to 2018 would include acquiring the site licence, the development consent order, and other required permits and permissions to start work. Site preparation would take two years, up to 2020.

History

In 2014, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority agreed commercial terms with developer NuGen to extend a land option agreement to build three reactors at Moorside. Later that year, HM Treasury agreed to provide financial security to investors in the project.

In July 2015, NuGen purchased the land near Sellafield needed for the Moorside, approximately 200 hectares, for an undisclosed sum.

AP1000 reactor design

Main article: AP1000

The AP1000 is a nuclear power plant designed and sold by Westinghouse Electric Company. The plant is a pressurised water reactor (PWR) with improved use of passive nuclear safety. The design has fewer valves and pumps than previous PWRs and its design allows cooling without intervention for up to 72 hours, relying mostly on foolproof forces, like water flowing downhill and heat rising. This novel design has raised a number of concerns but the design has been approved for use in both the United States and China.

In December 2011, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and Environment Agency (EA) issued interim design acceptance for the AP1000 reactor design. These indicated that there were 51 outstanding issues and the ONR and EA were satisfied with the plans to resolve these issues. The issues include "Justification of novel form of structure for the steel/concrete composite walls and floors known as CA modules"

Opposition

The proposal to build the station is opposed by Radiation Free Lakeland, a group of local activists.

Consultation

Stage 1 consultation took place between May and July 2015 and a report was published on 23 November 2015. Stage 2 consultation will take place between May and July 2016.