Business and Whitehall heavyweights have shown support for West Cumbria’s nuclear reactor hopes at a panel this week, with pledges to “see if we can get something done.”
Politicians, academics and business leaders with an interest in nuclear power attended a panel this week staged at the Conservative Party Conference.
Their discussion centred around British nuclear and ambitions to deploy 24GW of clean energy by 2050. Senior research fellow for energy, policy exchange Alex Simakov said: “As older generations come offline, we have a new generation of nuclear energy ready to hit the grid and we have very ambitious plans for a future that is clean, affordable and that is in large part powered by nuclear.”
Leaders in Copeland aim to be a part of that new nuclear frontier, in particular efforts are being made to bring a Small Modular Reactor to NDA land neighbouring Sellafield.
Copeland’s nuclear prospectus includes a Clean Energy Hub at Moorside and a Small Modular Reactor at Fellside.
Speaking at the conference, Copeland mayor Mike Starkie called for clarity on Cumbria’s place in the plans.
He said: “I represent a community where there’s huge support, that is in fact crying out for new nuclear, the question I’d like to pose to the Secretary of State is, what’s the time scale you foresee where you will purchase an SMR and what do we need to do to make sure we get that sited in Copeland, on the Sellafield site?”
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “I think we must have an immediate conversation between you and Rolls-Royce about whether a site can be developed. I wish I was in a position to say, ‘done and dusted now’ I’m not, I think that would be exceeding my powers as Secretary of State.
“But I’m really keen to get this project going, if you’ve got a site. Rolls-Royce has a scheme, let’s see if we can get something done.”
He quickly added that a fair and competitive process needs to take place but “it seems to me as if we’ve almost got a deal, if we can just make it work properly.”
Rolls-Royce SMR CEO Tom Samson said both sites north and south of Sellafield were “perfect”.
He added: “We’ve been working with the NDA for some months exploring, across a number of their sites, where they could deploy our SMR fastest and I think West Cumbria is definitely in that space.”
