Civil engineers warn over nuclear spending programme

The government needs to make its programme of investment in nuclear power plants clearer if it wants to avoid clashes with other big infrastructure projects like Crossrail, civil engineers have warned.

The warning follows news earlier this week that the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has outlined its plans on how it will select suitable sites for the nuclear plants.

The Strategic Siting Assessment sets out detailed criteria and a process for choosing where to build nuclear power stations safely across England and Wales.

Possible sites will be judged on a set of ‘exclusionary’ and ‘discretionary’ criteria:

• ‘Exclusionary’ criteria relate the basic suitability of a site and take in considerations like seismic risk and proximity to populated areas.
• ‘Discretionary’ criteria include “less absolute” issues that could make a site unsuitable, such as flooding, coastal conditions, and areas that are environmentally protected.

CECA director Rosemary Beales welcomed the consultation but warned that early decisions needed to be made to give contractors a “visible programme for investment”.

“The sector has the capacity to deliver but with the announcement that Crossrail is to go ahead from 2010, the industry will need a much clearer forward spending programme for investment in new nuclear power that sets out exactly what the spending profile will be in order to best plan to meet demand,” she said.

Nuclear power timeline - the steps involved:

• Siting criteria to be finalised in 2009
• National Policy Statement with list of suitable sites in 2010
• Infrastructure Planning Commission to deal with planning applications (subject to approval of Planning Bill)
• Construction to begin 2013-14
• Power generation to begin in 2017-20