EDF Energy sets ball rolling on UK site sale

Friday, 27 November 2009

EDF Energy has started the process to sell off land suitable for a new nuclear power plant at Bradwell - but only "credible" nuclear operators need apply.

The Bradwell development site is beside the former Magnox plant(Image: British Energy)

Some of the Bradwell land came into EDF Energy's hands through its acquisition of British Energy, with the company buying a further 200 hectares earlier this year at auction from the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The company is required to sell the land as part of conditions imposed when it purchased British Energy. It also agrred to sell off land suitable for new build at either Dungeness or Heysham, although Dungeness was ruled by the government to be unsuitable for new build before 2020 on environmental advice.   

In the first stage of the sale process, EDF Energy is now inviting "credible nuclear operators" to come forward with expressions of interest in the site. This is defined as an organisation that currently operates a nuclear power plant anywhere in the world and operates an electricity generating station subject to UK regulations, or is committed to doing so by 2025.

The Essex site was named in the UK government's recently published draft nuclear National Policy Statement (NPS) as a potential location for a new nuclear plant. Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, EDF Energy's managing director of nuclear new build, said the site had good potential and would be attractive to would-be nuclear power plant developers but that his company's UK priorities lay elsewhere. "EDF Energy has long indicated that we would like to build our four EPRs at Sizewell and Hinkley Point, with the first operational by the end of 2017," he said.
 
Any sale agreed will be conditional on the final results of the nuclear NPS and on EDF Energy obtaining planning permission for the two European Pressurised Water Reactors (EPRs) it plans to build at Sizewell in Suffolk. A application should be submitted for that around following public consultation ending in January 2010. 
 
The land for sale is adjacent to the original Bradwell nuclear power station, where two Magnox reactors operated from the early 1960s. The station closed in 2002, and is now being decommissioned.