UK: Multinational consortium plans nuclear plant

Multinational consortium buys land for new nuclear reactor in Britain

• On 12:45 pm EDT, Wednesday October 28, 2009

LONDON (AP) -- A multinational consortium of energy companies has agreed to buy land near Britain's Sellafield nuclear complex and will submit plans for a new plant as part of the government's plans to replace its aging state-built reactors.

Iberdrola SA, GDF Suez SA and Scottish and Southern Energy PLC paid 70 million pounds for an area of land comprising 190 hectares (470 acres) to the north of the existing Sellafied site, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said on Wednesday.

The consortium said in a statement it will prepare detailed plans to planning authorities for the construction of a new nuclear power station at the site with a capacity of up to 3.6 gigawatts and aims to begin construction around 2015.

"The sale of this land is a significant milestone in our asset disposal programme and follows on from the successful sale of land at three of our sites earlier this year," said John Clarke, NDA Commercial Director. "The 450 million pounds generated from these sales will be utilised to support the NDA's clean-up mission and is good news for the U.K. taxpayer."

Most of Britain's nuclear power stations are due to be retired over the next 15 years. Electricite de France SA plans to have the first of four new nuclear power plants operational in 2017.

France's GDF Suez and Spain's Iberdrola each have a 37.5 percent stake in the consortium, while Scottish and Southern holds the remaining 25 percent.

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