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Empresas y finanzas

Britain starts search for new nuclear build sites


    LONDON (Reuters) - Budding nuclear power plant builders have two months to nominate sites for the next generation of nuclear power stations in Britain, the government said on Tuesday.

    Europe's biggest utilities, which have been clubbing together this month in readiness to build the nuclear power plants Britain hopes will replace an aging fleet of state built reactors, have until March 31 to submit their site proposals.

    "The industry continues to gear up to invest and we are on course to see new nuclear feeding into the grid by 2018," Britain's Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told the Nuclear Development Forum on Tuesday.

    "We'll be judging each site that gets nominated against the criteria we have set out today and there will be plenty of opportunities for local authorities and the public to have their say on the options tabled."

    Britain's publically-run Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said last week it plans to nominate four of its facilities, including the Sellafield nuclear fuel processing plant.

    French nuclear energy giant EDF, which is buying the owner of most of Britain's nuclear power plants, British Energy, has said it plans to build two reactors at Sizewell in Suffolk and two at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

    It also plans to nominate sites at Heysham in Lancashire, Hartlepool in northeast England and Dungeness in Kent.

    "Sites selection is a vital element of the framework for new build, but just one of a number of pieces that must be put in place if we are to address the urgent energy challenges the country faces," EDF Energy Chief Executive Vincent de Rivaz said in a statement.

    "Subject to a robust investment framework being put in place in the right timescales, EDF Energy intends to build four new EPR nuclear reactors in the UK, with the first to be operational by the end of 2017."

    Earlier this month German utilities RWE and E.ON joined forces to build nuclear power stations in Britain, while Scottish and Southern Energy and Spain's Iberdrola also plan to work together on new reactors.

    The list of nominated sites should be published in spring, followed by a month-long public consultation and government assessment.

    From 2010, developers may apply for planning permission for the sites which are found to be suitable.

    (Reporting by Daniel Fineren)