Monday 29 November 2010

New UK nuclear player now up and running

New UK nuclear player now up and running

Scottish and Southern Energy and its nuclear partners GDF Suez and Iberdrola today officially unveiled their joint venture company NuGeneration.

NuGen intends to build a nuclear station of up to 3.6GW in West Cumbria on land approved for nuclear development in the government's draft National Policy Statement.
NuGen now plans to prepare detailed proposals for the site, with a target date for a final investment decision being set at around 2015. If this proves to be the case, the station would be commissioned around 2023.

The consortium trio own and operate almost 10,000 MW of nuclear capacity across Spain, Belgium, Germany and France, and have more than 250,000 employees worldwide, with almost 40,000 staff in the UK.

The NuGen management team has been drawn from all three of the consortium partners. GDF's Olivier Carret is chief operating director with Iberdrola's Alfio Vidal as chief nuclear director. Mr Carret said: "NuGen recognizes that significant investments are required in the UK to deliver security of energy supply and the targeted reduction of CO2 emissions. NuGen is committed to helping the UK achieve these goals and expects to build a reputation for delivering the secure low carbon energy supply of the future in a responsible and safe way."

Mr Vidal said: "NuGen's greatest strength is that it can draw upon the experience, resources and skills of three well established and respected energy companies that have experience of operating and delivering nuclear, and other generation plants, across Europe."

He added that NuGen hoped to "draw upon the expertise and knowledge that comes from the long tradition of nuclear power in West Cumbria".

The NuGen consortium was first formed in February 2009 and in October last year it secured an option to buy the land for its proposed nuclear site near Sellafield for £70m.

Spain's Iberdrola is the fifth largest electricity group in the world, with a foothold in 40 countries and more than 30m customers.
GDF Suez employs 200,650 people worldwide and last year pulled in revenues of £67.4bn.

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

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