Scots pact in bid to build reactors

By Rebecca Bream, Utilities Correspondent
Published: January 21 2009 00:15

Scotland’s leading energy companies are joining forces to look at building new nuclear power stations in the UK, starting with the bidding for land being sold by the government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
Companies are increasingly forming partnerships for nuclear investments because of the risks involved and the large amounts of funding needed.

Scottish & Southern Energy and Iberdrola, the Spanish energy company that owns Scottish Power, said on Tuesday they had formed a joint venture “to secure sites suitable for nuclear power stations”. They will be submitting joint bids for land at three locations owned by the NDA thought to be suitable for new reactor development; Wylfa in Wales, Oldbury in Gloucestershire and Bradwell in Essex.
Last week, the German energy groups Eon and RWE said they would be teaming up to bid for the NDA sites with an eye to jointly building and running new nuclear reactors.
The NDA plans to unveil the winning bidders for the three sites by the end of March.
The best sites for nuclear development are considered to be those owned by British Energy, including Sizewell in Suffolk and Hinkley Point in Somerset. But these are now controlled by EDF, the French energy company, following its takeover of British Energy, completed this month.
Other energy groups interested in building nuclear plants are therefore having to focus on the sites sold by the NDA.
EDF aims to build four reactors in the UK, with the first one starting to generate electricity at the end of 2017 or early 2018. Eon and RWE are planning to develop at least 6 gigawatts of nuclear generation capacity in the UK, which represents four to six reactors.