A new group bringing together key stakeholders has met for the first time to tackle the roadblocks getting in the way of delivering new nuclear in West Cumbria.
The group, convened by Whitehaven & Workington MP Josh MacAlister – who was also elected this week to Chair the influential All-Party Parliamentary Group for Nuclear Energy in Parliament – brought together MPs, Cumberland Council, trade unions and business and nuclear sector organisations, including Great British Nuclear, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), Sellafield, Nuclear Waste Services, the Office of Nuclear Regulation, the Nuclear Industry Association and Britain’s Energy Coast Business Cluster.
The key issue under discussion at the first meeting was competing use of the land at Moorside. The site was designated for new nuclear use by the last Labour government in 2008 but large swathes of the site have since been earmarked for decommissioning activity by the NDA.
Great British Nuclear (GBN) are currently assessing sites to develop Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), with decisions expected in the coming weeks. If adequate land is not available at Moorside, it will not get through the GBN process and West Cumbria could lose out on new nuclear for a generation.
Josh said:
“This was the first time all key stakeholders were in the same room discussing this issue. It’s something that should have been done a long time ago by Cumbria’s former MPs, who instead left us sleepwalking towards losing out on new nuclear, while telling everyone to trust the process.
“Now we have new leadership and we’ve asked the difficult questions and discovered the extent of the roadblocks getting in the way of new nuclear in our area, Cumbria’s new MPs and the council are working in lockstep and fighting tooth and nail to overcome these issues and secure Cumbria’s nuclear future.”
Josh MacAlister MP 