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NucNet latest: Consultation starts over draft criteria for new nuclear sites |
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Tuesday, 22 July 2008 |
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Draft criteria for the siting of potential new nuclear power plants in England and Wales have been published for consultation by the UK government today.
The consultation on the ‘Strategic Siting Assessment’ (SSA)*, published by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), outlines the process the government will use for identifying suitable sites for new nuclear plants. The consultation process ends on 11 November 2008.
BERR plans to finalise the criteria by early 2009, when it expects to call for nominations for sites that could be suitable for new nuclear generation.
UK business secretary John Hutton said: "Nuclear power is an essential part of our future energy mix… We must do everything we can to remove any remaining barriers and open up the UK as the most attractive place in the world to invest in nuclear power."
The SSA is the next step towards a Nuclear National Policy Statement, set to be published in 2010 and to include a list of sites assessed as "strategically suitable" for building new power stations.
The consultation document published today outlines ‘exclusionary’ and ‘discretionary’ criteria:
‘Exclusionary’ criteria relate to the fundamental suitability of a site and will be used to "screen out" unacceptable locations, BERR said. This includes "seismic risk" and proximity to heavily-populated areas.
'Discretionary' criteria are those that could make a site unsuitable, subject to further consideration. BERR said these include "less absolute issues and will be used to form a balanced view of the site’s suitability, such as flooding, coastal conditions and areas that are environmentally protected".
These criteria, subject to parliamentary approval of proposed new planning laws, would help guide the Infrastructure Planning Commission in dealing with specific planning applications on those sites, BERR said.
It will be the Infrastructure Planning Commission that would decide on applications from developers and, if approval is given, work could start on new nuclear power plants by as early as 2013, with commissioning between 2017 and 2020.
The UK government gave the go-ahead for the possible construction of a new generation of nuclear power plants in the UK in January 2008.
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