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ENERGY
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
By Ged Henderson
THE NUCLEAR REACTION
We brought industry experts to Blackpool and The Fylde College’s Lancashire Energy HQ to discuss the role that businesses in the county are playing in the green energy transition
A bullish and determined Keir Starmer could not have been clearer during his visit to Lancashire in February. Nuclear is back on the energy agenda.
He indicated that more nuclear power plants will be approved across England and Wales with planning rules revamped and the Prime Minister vowing to slash red tape.
The government says reforms to planning rules will clear a path for smaller, and easier to build nuclear reactors – known as Small Modular Reactors (SMR) – to be built for the first time in the UK.
It says that will create thousands of new highly skilled jobs while delivering “clean, secure and more affordable energy for working people”.
Speaking during a visit to the National Nuclear
Laboratory’s site at Springfields, near Preston, alongside energy secretary Ed Miliband, the PM said the advent of SMRs meant progress could be swift.
And the change in planning rules meant that they could be built beyond the eight existing designated nuclear sites.
The PM said: “We used to be one of the world leaders on nuclear. I’m determined we’re going to get back there. So, we are the builders, and we’re going to take on the blockers.”
Developers will be encouraged to bring forward sites as soon as possible at the pre-application stage in the planning process, speeding up overall timelines.
And it will include new nuclear technologies such as small and advanced modular reactors
SUPPORTED BY:
for the first time, providing flexibility to co-locate them with energy intensive industrial sites such as AI data centres.
It’s a message that has been greeted positively by the sector in Lancashire, where there is a plan to build to build four new generation SMRs providing up to 1,280 Mega Watts of electricity, at the Hillhouse International Enterprise Zone on the Fylde coast.
Those behind it say it will bring in an initial £12bn of investment into the area and at least 4,000 highly paid jobs, while bringing cheaper and reliable energy to the area for the next 80 years.
They also believe it will lead to investments in other technological industries, including powering AI data centres.
Steve Wood is chief executive at Fylde Coast
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