Last year, the Prime Minister announced plans to unlock 200+ acres of land at Moorside in West Cumbria for new nuclear power generation, following my year long campaign and as laid out in my industrial plan for West Cumbria.
Read the Prime Minister’s column in the Whitehaven News
The Prime Minister confirmed that land at Moorside would be freed up to be leased and marketed by a local development corporation to pave the way for a new nuclear power plant.
Read the coverage in the Whitehaven News
The Chancellor also singled out the project in her 2025 Spending Review.
Following the announcement in June 2025 I asked the Energy Secretary to continue working with us to make it a reality and to speed up the regulatory process so we can build new nuclear faster.
I set up the Cumberland Nuclear Future Board in September 2024 with my fellow Cumberland MPs, Cllr Mark Fryer, the leader of Cumberland Council, the leaders of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Sellafield Ltd and local union and business representatives to try to remove the roadblocks that had built up under the Conservatives to delivering new nuclear in West Cumbria.
Unlocking land at Moorside has been the biggest barrier to securing new nuclear power generation in West Cumbria since the collapse of the NuGen deal in 2018. West Cumbria later lost out on the STEP Fusion programme and a plan for a £6 billion private nuclear development of SMRs was blocked in 2023 by the then Conservative government because of competing demands on the use of the land, as evidenced in The Moorside Letters.
Multiple meetings have been held with Ministers to try to resolve the issues with use of and access to the land. Agreement has now been reached, a market engagement process with nuclear and other clean energy developers has been carried out, £1 million has been secured to develop a masterplan for the site and that work is now well underway, with engagement activity taking place this summer before the plan is published in the autumn.
Upcoming engagement events
Have your say on the plan to bring new nuclear to West Cumbria this summer:
- Tuesday 14th July, 3pm – 7pm, The Peddler, Whitehaven Bus Station
- Saturday 15th August, all day, Gosforth Agricultural Show
You can also share your views online here
While this doesn’t guarantee that we’ll get new nuclear in West Cumbria, it gives us the best possible shot we’ve had since 2018. We now have the chance to seize control of our own destiny. This really is a game changer for our area.
Delivering this is my top priority as your MP and a week doesn’t go by where I don’t have a meeting or conversation to try to drive it forward.
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Josh MacAlister MP 