Government names 11 sites for potential new nuclear build

The government has named 11 likely sites for the construction of new nuclear power stations in England and Wales.

The sites are:

• Dungeness in Kent;
• Sizewell in Suffolk;
• Hartlepool in Cleveland;
• Heysham in Lancashire;
• Wylfa Peninsula in Anglesey;
• Oldbury in Gloucestershire;
• Hinkley Point in Somerset;
• Bradwell in Essex;
• Sellafield in Cumbria;
• Braystones in Cumbria;
• and Kirksanton in Cumbria.

Nine of the locations have previously been home to nuclear reactors, while the remaining two are close to the former Sellafield reactor site in Cumbria.

The sites have been nominated by the energy companies EDF, E.ON and RWE, and by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which owns some of the land, and have been initially approved by the Government.

The decision on the sites will now be put out to a month-long consultation.

Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, said: “Nuclear power is part of the low carbon future for Britain. It also has the potential to offer thousands of jobs to the UK and multimillion pound opportunities to British businesses."