The British nuclear project company NuGeneration (NuGen) has confirmed its intention to move forward with the Moorside nuclear power plant project in West Cumbria (United Kingdom). Details of the project have been submitted to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in order to enable its inclusion as a potential new nuclear power plant site in the new National Policy Statement for Nuclear, which shall define governmental policy for development of new sources of energy between 2026 and 2035.
NuGen was the joint venture created by Toshiba and Engie in 2010 for the development of a 3.8 GWe nuclear power plant at the Moorside site, which should feature three Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors of 1,200 MW each, but Westinghouse - a Toshiba subsidiary - filed for bankruptcy in March 2017, threatening the entire project. Consequently, Engie withdrew from the project and sold its 40% stake in the project company NuGen to its partner Toshiba, which has been the sole owner of NuGen since April 2017.
A partner is needed to rescue the £10bn (€11.4bn) project but changing the reactor design would delay the project commissioning - scheduled for 2025 - by at least two years. In December 2017, Kepco was selected as the preferred bidder or the acquisition of a 100% stake in NuGen but in August 2018, Toshiba announced that it was no longer the preferred bidder due to excessive operating expenses. Toshiba will grant Kepco some time to revise its business model so negotiations can be resumed, however, under a more competitive environment.
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